Category Archives: Spiritual Practice

Metaphysics, Modern Living, Psychology, Spiritual Practice

“The Incoherence of the Scientists”

Leave a comment

At this point in time,we need to bring back the great 12th century Islamic scholar Imam Ghazzali who wrote “The Incoherence of the Philosophers”. That was a time when philosophers were highly respected and taken seriously. The updated version of that book needs to be called “The Incoherence of the Scientists”-for the modern world .But while we are waiting lol, I will give you my version.

We see an incredible amount of incoherence amongst the scientists analyzing the Covid epidemic-both on the pro-vaxx AND anti-Vaxx sides! So the pro-vaxxers(leading luminaries like Antony Fauci ,Rachel Wallensky,Sanjay Gupta and Paul Offit to name but a few) for so long and still to a significant extent are doubting the lab origins of the Virus-something for which there is now clear-cut documentary evidence and something which the French nobel laureate Dr. Luc Montagnier asserted on first seeing the genetic code of the virus in Jan.2020!Plus they are denying the evidence of the efficacy of early treatment with Ivermectin and hydroxychloriquine despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This alone has cost millions of lives!

On the other side, you have very clever thinkers like the financial analyst/lawyer types like David Martin and psychiatrist Andrew  Kaufman claiming that the virus doesn’t even exist because it has not been isolated.. And you have almost universal agreement amongst the anti-vaxxers on the one hand claiming that the PCR test is completely bogus and unreliable(which I wholly agree to) at the same time claiming that we have proof that children do not spread the disease! How can you have proof of that when you have no workable tests to confirm it I, personally, have noted several instances of spread from children to adults in the people around me .Almost every ordinary citizen where I live noticed the uptick in cases when the schools opened and now in Quebec half the outbreaks are in schools! So give me a break!

The next level of unravelling this delusionary process is the fact that not only are scientists incoherent but Science itself is also! If you go back to the basic principles of the scientific method( (Observation, Hypothesis, Experimentation, Conclusion)implicitly it requires the capacity for objective observation and objective analysis to arrive at unbiased conclusions. Anyone who has understood Freud and his contributions or even someone looking at the world and its people around them realizes how unlikely that is!

But we will go one step further here-on a metaphysical plane. Coherence itself is incoherent! That is because Reality is replete with contradictions and paradoxes. So any attempt to create a coherent model is bound to be defective and misleading! The map can NEVER represent fully the territory. At its best it is a defective, one-dimensional representation which is bound to cause problems.

So….. what are we left with?! Hearing, seeing and intuitive feeling. Those are the tools for apprehending Reality! (Both Zen and Islam and in all likelihood many other spiritual traditions confirm that. Then we can regain our humanity and escape from the clutches of the robotic transhumans of data analysis. God help us in our journey!

Salaams,Ibrahim

Btw The first coherent argument in the history of our planet came from the snake speaking to Eve.: “Eat  this apple and you will gain the knowledge of good and evil’ Perfectly logical! What could possibly go wrong wit that lol?!

Metaphysics, Modern Living, Spiritual Practice

DON’T Follow the Evidence!

2 Comments

(It’s just more mischief from the Social Consensus Echo-Chamber!)

If you follow the concrete evidence(read Empiricism and Materialism), you will end up concluding that life is a pile of crap made of arbitrary and unnecessary misery. Need evidence?! Go to any hospital, any prison, any school or the vast majority of workplaces lol. If you follow the evidence, you will end up discouraged, depressed and despondent. You will end up like the Existentialists and worse-believing that there is no point to it all! What a place to be?!

So instead,  follow your deepest inspiration and intuition. Follow the Revelations and peoples’ mystical experiences and the teachings of the great spiritual beings of the past and the present. Ah, you can breathe again with your new vision.

So it’s your choice-misery or upliftment. Make it a wise one!

Salaams, Sufi Ibrahim

Comparative Religion, Metaphysics, Spiritual Practice, Sufism

The Greeks, Oy!

Leave a comment

Someone else*(first ever!) has understood the limitations and potential harm of the adoption of Greek Philosophy by the Muslims! Mashallah. There is hope in the Universe lol!
Aanand Krishnan posts:
·
Vedānta, and the Advaita kind in particular, is a fountain of wisdom and looks at reality from within and offers an alternative to the Greek way of philosophy, which focuses on the study of the external universe primarily.
Islamic metaphysics developed under the light of Greek Philosophy primarily due to historical factors. If Islam had conquered the lands to the east before turning westward, things might have been different.
There is no particular reason why an Islamic metaphysics guided by Vedānta could not be developed more fully. And I think it could provide an even more comprehensive system of metaphysics that is consistent with the Qur’ān and the Sunnah of the holy prophet.
He is after all not just al-Zāhir but also al-Bātin. The Greek system enabled Muslims to develop a metaphysics of external manifestation but layers about what lies inside of us perhaps haven’t been fully developed.

P.S. The author goes on to say that the Vedanata makes a distinction between pramata(what I call Epistemology!) and prameya(logical proof).Finally someone else is getting it!

Metaphysics, Modern Living, Psychology, Spiritual Practice

Beyond the “Schtick”

1 Comment

For those of you not familiar with this Yiddish expression,here is the Myriam-Webster Dictionary definition:

1: a usually comic or repetitious performance or routine : bit
2 : one’s special trait, interest, or activity : bag 
As with many Dictionary definitions,it doesn’t quite capture the modern usage of the term.In the modern  sense,it could be rendered as “neurosis” or “peculiarities” or even “orneriness”. In any case,I think the point will be clear as we continue and the best way to apprehend the word is to feel it in its essence,”the thing in itself” as Kant would refer to it as .   “Schtick”.Feel it.
All of this emerged from a short dream I had last night:
“I was visiting an old client  of mine who I hadn’t seen in a long time.She told me about a long-time friend of hers who had been staying with her.We were both aware that this particular friend was full of”schtick”( quirky ideas and beliefs and behaviours). Then her eyes welled up with tears. “You’re missing her” I stated.And she acknowledged  that it was true.
So,very brief dream but it opened up a deep insight about our relationships with other human beings We need to see “beyond the “schtick” and relate to the person beyond the appearance and beyond the personality or the neurosis.Connect with their heart,their souls,their essences.Deep stuff,indeed.A heady brew for sure.That would change everything,wouldn’t it? Think about it!
 Then my mind went even deeper!We have to see beyond the “schtick” of the dunniya(this world)- its sufferings and diasppointments and pain- to its essence as a gift to our souls for our learning and development.From the appearances of things to their Essence.What a subject of contemplation for this day-and many days to come !
Metaphysics, Modern Living, Spiritual Practice

“Transformational” Films Outed!

Leave a comment

Invitation to a Movie-

Modernism Outed Once Again!

A response to a relative’s invitation to watch “Milton’s Secret”

Sorry guys ! Not my cup of tea! Contemporary angst, overly self-conscious and grim (yes, it probably ends well. Good for the directors bottom-line lol).There is no such thing as a transformational film, a life-changing film! That is more hype from the marketers. Watching a film-no matter how good-is a passive, recreational activity .In any case you have a much better spiritual teacher in your midst than Eckhart Tolle! That’s Sufi Ibrahim lol. Much more balanced, less etheric, more grounded. But you have to figure out how to benefit from it. Eckhart Tolle is a spiritual entertainer. And he looks to be in an awful state in his intro to the film!.So his teachings are not working for himself-let alone his followers. They get a quick hit and then they’re lost! My personal observation. They all have to go elsewhere eventually. Just saying…Bottom line-Never rely on the media hype if you want to advance .Doing that you’ll end up being like Justin Trudeau! And I wouldn’t wish that for my worst enemy lol  Salaams,Joey Ibrahim

Hi again! Since you made the effort to forward me the link about the film, let me make two points here that may help in your understanding;

1) Transformation is an active process. As one California guru lol said: “You have to have skin in the game” i.e. it requires effort and time and money and going beyond one’s comfort zone. Watching a movie, no matter how well done, just doesn’t cut it! Pretending otherwise is just more of the “spin” (i.e. misleading information that we have become so used to. by now.) Anyone who wants to transform their lives is going to have to roll up their sleeves( not their pyjama legs) and get ready to work up a sweat.

2) Especially true about teachers like Eckhart Tolle and other Non-dualists out there- There is no such thing as spirituality without religion! Sorry New-Agers lol. That would be like having a tree with no bark, a body without skin, a gem without a setting-choose your metaphor. None of those options are viable. Where you end up on those paths is “high and lost”. So these pedlars of fool’s gold need to be highlighted and denounced because overall, despite the hype, they are doing a disservice to humanity. And yes,I am well aware of the negative mantras about religion; ”It causes war and corruption and pedophilia and oppression. However what the social consensus is not telling you is that religion also and primarily teaches people self-discipline, virtue and good character. Each of these is far more important than getting “high” on spiritual practices. Hope that makes sense to you. Salaams,Sufi Ibrahim

 

Metaphysics, Spiritual Practice, Sufism

The Efficient Cause

Leave a comment

The Efficient Cause!

N.B. This reflection was triggered by three separate ‘khalewah” experiences-one three day retreat in the countryside of the Gatineau region at a Wellness centre, one three-day retreat and one six-day end of Ramadan retreat at my apartment with Hadi. All three had a notable effect on the participants “hal” (inner state).The project manager/  MBA types  would call that “proof of concept” lol

Aristotle is one of those personalities I love to hate lol. I consider his contributions to modern “civilisation’ (specifically at the level of syllogisms and logical analysis) to be amongst the most corrupting and disruptive influences around! Surpassing that of many other “geniuses” like Marx, Freud and Darwin! Nevertheless, he, like those just mentioned, also has articulated valuable concepts that can help us make sense of the world around us.

In the case of Aristotle, I am referring here to his classification of the Four types of Causes: 1) Material causes(the body);Formal causes(paradigms or blueprints like the species homo sapiens);Final causes(which are really purposes) .In this light, Islam would say that the purpose of man is worshipping and serving his Lord and finally “Efficient Causes” those that lead regularly to specific consequences. It is the efficient causes that we are addressing in this article.

I realized, in my recent reflections, that I have spent the last 45 years searching for the “efficient cause” of spiritual development. In this search I have tried everything I could find! From meditation, a very popular contemporary answer to this quest, seminars and conferences of all sorts, to sitting with the guru/sheikh to individual retreats of varying lengths. All of them have had some effects-some more spectacular than others- some leading to various “hals ‘(spiritual states) but none of them reliably and stably leading to the desired effect-a long-term persistent internal state of connectedness with the Divine!

So… in the spirit of scientific enquiry, not the science of peer-reviewed journals and obsessive statistical analysis but the science of observation and experimentation of Francis Bacon, I stumbled across another methodology! I call this approach the Modified Collective Khalewah! (MCKh if you need an acronym to remember it) That might sound like a mouthful but let me go over it word by word- in reverse order..

Khalewah is an Arabic word meaning retreat or isolation. Classically, the Sufis retreated into the mountains or the caves or in their individual retreat cells in the zawwiya and did their dhikr(meditation) practices for various lengths of time. In the case of Grandsheikh Abdullah Daghestani(the sheikh of Sheikh Nazin) he spent seven years in the mountains of Daghestan doing “laillaha illala’ 99.000 times per day ,fasting, doing “ghusl”-the major ablutions- with melted ice from the mountains! And breaking his fast with seven olives and a cup of tea and restarting the process the next day! Sheikh Abu-Hassan Ash-Shadhili did something similar in the hills around Tunis. And Abdul-Qader Jilani is reported to have done a total of 25 years of khalewah before he finally settled down into his role of teacher and father of a family of 49 children! Personally, I don’t think we are up to those standards nowadays lol!

I have tried these kind of individual retreats but nowhere close to those extremes. The longest retreat I have done is 40 days. But inevitably they all ended up at the same place-tired , burnt-out and discouraged. Didn’t work for me and I imagine the same is true for many other people if they reflect on their own experience

Collective:  I have struggled with the Islamic injunction about the jamaat (collectivity) for years. As many other people have said to me as well: ”I am not really a groupie”. I get it. On top of it, we were raised in the West in a very individualistic mindset and although that can be problematic in some ways, it is salutary in others. When I travel to other countries and see the uniformity of the mindset of “traditional ‘ cultures ,it often shocks and dismays me. These countries mostly have the same thinking and the same opinions-about almost everything . I like to say: ”The Quraysh (the original opponents of our Prophet saws) are alive and well in the midst of the Islamic community! i.e. objecting to anything new!

But that is not the whole story about community.! There is an energy in the “jamaat” that you cannot find on your own! Through the support, encouragement and supervision of the group, we can find the motivation to keep going-something difficult to do by ourselves. So, when Islam and its Prophet saws encourage people to pray together, it is not just about group cohesion and community-building as I had previously thought. It is also about the group energy and transmission. That force needs to be harnessed for maximum “efficiency” of cause.

Modified: Why modified? Because we need to go on living our lives and interacting with the community around us! That is what the Prophet saws did. And that is what some of the cultish groups like Jim Jones in Guyana and Rajnessh in Oregon did not do! We must interact with the individual neighbours and the surrounding community- but with the spirit of “khalewah’(isolation in the crowd) and taqwa(God-consciousnes) animating our every effort. If we do that right, we should feel the effect inwardly and that is our most cherished goal-to improve our inward state!That is what we are aiming at ultimately.

Actionable Intelligence:(more American wisdom lol) At this point the specter of Empiricism raises its hoary head lol and asks:”So what do we do now?” Not wanting to disappoint the activists who need to concretize things quickly, here is the plan… We start with short sessions of modified khalewah- in peoples’ homes, in retreat centres that are willing to accommodate us-for short periods of time-from 2-10 days- and we observe the effects. Eventually, my hope is that we can form a community of like-minded people so that we can live this approach on a 24/7 basis .It is the closest thing I can imagine to the community around our Prophet saws in Medina!

Important Caveats:

1.Obviously a lot of glitches and problems will come up in the process of realizing this project. We must be prepared for that and not get too easily discouraged. If you need a model for how that occurs ,study the events that occurred in the life of our Prophet saws when he moved to Madina. Life is never easy or without its challenges. Courage and wisdom and even diplomacy will no doubt be necessary!

2.Attitude : The fundamental attitude needs to be “taqwa” God-consciousness, surrender to the Divine Will. Nothing else will work. Many communal projects have failed because they were based on individual or group ambitions(“good ideas but not perfect ones as Sheilh Nazim said about the project of Dar al Islam in New Mexico that eventually failed.)Other reasons for failure are addressed in the next section-on leadership.

  1. Leadership! This is the most difficult of all -as competent, skilled leadership is one of the rarest commodities on the planet! Many spiritual communities fail because the leader is corrupt in one way or another-the three most popular forms of corruption are around money, sexuality and power! But there are other forms of corruption around various forms of psychopathology-like obsessionalism(micromanaging and overcontrolling peoples lives);Aspergers(the leader being out of touch with the lived reality around him) and even ethnocentricity-the community only works for a particular nationality with a particular mind-set..

So.. there are many ways this can go wrong and only a very few options that can work .I am betting on that rarety in this project!

Ahlan. please feel free to comment and contribute to this process.

Salaams, Sufi Ibrahim

Addendum.I had a dream in which I saw a world-class clinic that was installing artificial limbs.But these limbs were not the usual ones of plastic and steel .Instead they were made of comfortable materials like organic cotton and flannel!

What I understood, from this dream, was that the limbs referred to the Modified Collective Khalewah I have been talking about.I have done many khalewahs in the past but there was always some obstacle that prevented me from arriving at the goal.

I realized that the major obstacle was that the process was too uncomfortable!For example,in the khalewah I did in Jordan the sheikh locked the door to the cell so that I not be disturbed. I told him I was afraid I couldn’t escape if there was a fire.But he made light of it saying that the materials of the building were not flammable! So much for empathy lol Needless to say,the result was less than satisfactory!

In other khalewahs, as well, the rules were so strict that the nafs revolted.Even the ones I designed myself contained rules that were too harsh -like doing dhikr at every moment that I was awake! May have worked for Grandsheikh but not for me or I assume most of us “normal folk”!

So,we need to design a ‘comfortable ” khalewah-not a slacker one but not an overly super-egoic one either.It should,despite the necessary effort of course,be enjoyable.Then people will want to do more! Rest assured that we are working on it. And long live psychology lol! Salaams,Ibrahim

Islam, Psychology, Spiritual Practice, Uncategorized

Ramadan as Process(An update to The Phenomenology of Ramadan)

Leave a comment
Islam, Modern Living

Ramadan as Process:

I an writing this article because it seems to me that there is a major aspect of the Ramadan experience that our scholars are unwilling to talk about -except in the most fleeting terms-its difficulty lol.They much prefer their idealizations and their principles to the lived reality!On the other hand ,in sharp contrast,I was pleased to hear Sheikh  Zaid Shakir recently mentioning “the rigours of Ramadan” The local Imam,when the mosque was operating at full capacity,loved,instead, to talk about how quickly it is was passing.”19 days” he would say:”and it passed like a brief moment”.Really?! Yup,a brief moment -of 19 eternities.

So ,all around me I would see and hear of events.Like my very first Tarawih prayer where the Imam fell to the floor writhing in pain.It turned out that the Ramadan dehydration phenomenon had crystallized a stone in his urinary tract requiring an emergency medical procedure.Or the woman who would mention to her friends that her husband, who said he was fine with fasting, was regularly losing his temper for nothing.Or the patients I had to recommend to stop their fast because their depression,which they were already struggling with, had gotten worse! All of this goes on backstage,while in the foreground the ulema are only telling us of the blessings and the benefits- which is also true.

Don’t get me wrong here! I think Ramadan is a wonderful practice- clearly ordained by our Lord for our benefit.But that benefit is spiritual- not physical.And it involves hardship and perseverance and submission to our Lord.If it were otherwise it would not be called “the month of patience”. It is not a beach-party of Divine Presence.For that, no patience would required.

So why do I bring this up?! Because I don’t believe in “denial'”. According to the psychoanalysts,denial is the most primitive form of defense mechanism.And in the Arabic language the root word for denial (k-th-b) is the same as that for lying! So we really don’t want to go there.This attempt at denial ends up being counterproductive! If the ulema were hoping to encourage us by telling us only about the positive aspects and not acknowledging the experience,they have the opposite effect.People who are having difficulty and pain then feel like they are defective,slackers and losers.Is that what we want?! To have a collective assault on our self-worth?That is certainly NOT the intention of our Lord or his Prophet saws

Now,once again,the point here is not to minimize the importance of Ramadan.Allah has ordered it for our benefit.The point is to learn how to manage it in a way that we get the maximum benefit and the least harm.We all know of people who cannot do it-due to diabetes,or migraines or circulatory illness or even in my experience people who are depressed and psychotic.But there are many more subtle and more common issues.Last year, I myself missed a large part of the fast because of the viral illness called Shingles.It was apparent that the fasting had triggered it and it would only get worse if I continued fasting .I had to make up the days during the year.I was content with my decision.And this year all is well,so far! Alhumdulillah.

Others are not so discerning.I remember being with an Irish convert in England who suffered from serious epilepsy.I advised him to do only a partial fast. He wouldn’t listen and had a grand-mal seizure in the Peckham mosque during tarawih prayers in the last ten days.That seizure elicited a huge fitna between the believers in neurology(including myself lol) and those who considered it was “jinn”.A huge conflagration occurred and the police(who were excellently trained unlike in America!) had to be called in to quell the riot!. That is not what we need as Muslims!

Admittedly most Ramadan issues are not quite so dramatic.They are more about managing our energy deficits,dealing with the headaches,the periods of constipation and loss of drive.All of those are reasonably frequent and need to be managed.For most people,Ramadan is a roller-coaster!  Periods of loss of energy,loss of motivation followed by moments of barakat and peace and blessings.Some experience tranquility and calm.Others lose their will to to do anything! “it’s all grist for the mill” the psychoanalysts like to say.For us “it’s all service to our Lord”. But, we are not supposed to be increasing the pain through blindness and ignorance.And the blindness we are referring to here mostly involves blindness to our inner experience.

“So what does this mean concretely?”you may ask.And we ARE living in the era of concreteness! It is called Philosophical Materialism or Empirism-and it affects the Muslim psyche just as it affects the social psyche generally.Some examples.When I was still practising psychiatry,I would reduce the number of patients I saw /day and abstain from new evaluations and complex reports since that is what took the most cognitive effort.When I met some Iranian students of agriculture at the local university,they told me they started studying at iftar and studied through the night.”Clever ones” I thought! A member of the Tunisian Olypmpic team told me they did their athletic training at midnight during Ramadan-after the Tarawih prayer.Another brilliant move.But all of that requires awareness and breaking of habits-somehing that is all too rare in many circles!

One of the keys here is NOT to feel guilty about our experience.And not to be a”.Ramadan fasting macho”.The Imams seem to be specialized in making us feel bad! ‘You fasted all day but you had some bad thoughts about a friend.Fasting cancelled”. “You recited some Quran.Did you not know that Imam AbuHanifa and Imam Shafii did two complete Qurans /day.So you’re a slacker”! ” You left after 8 rakats.Don’t you know that 20 is better” And on and on .I call this “The Catholicization of Islam” as the Catholics were adept at making their parishioners feel bad about themselves and regularly sending them to the hell-fires! One of the reasons so many left the Church.

Sheikh Nazim used to tell us that the formula for life was 40 to1- pain to pleasure.My apologies to any hedonists in the audience lol.Ramadan may well be even more acute.But the reward is with Allah.I shudder to think what the outcome would be if it  were in the hands of human beings.Actually if you look around at our planet you can see what that would be?! Gradual and systematic destruction! Tawakuultu Ilayhi Wa Huwa Rabb ul Arsh Al Atheem. (We trust in Him and He is the Lord of the Magificent Throne-i.e. the Ultimate Manager!)

So,Ramadan Kareem and Saleem.It’s going to be tough! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! But in the end it’s more than worth it.And it’s well  worth managing it skilfuly as well!

The Phenomenology of Ramadan

“Phenomenology” is a relatively new area of inquiry- often associated with such personalities as the German philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) and Martin Heidegger(1889-1976).We will not even attempt to go into the the intricacies of their philosophical systems as this would fly in the face of my most profound conviction about the need for simplicity. I would prefer to sort out a chaotic garage or warehouse space(obviously of my own making lol) than to even attempt such an endeavour.

Nevertheless,I think these schools of thought do represent an important development in our own way of conceiving the world and more specifically the need for us to observe and reflect on our inner  experience.This need does not seem to be very present in traditional cultures including Islam where correct behaviour and correct beliefs seemed to suffice.So for most Muslims ,the fact that Allah ordained fasting in the Quran(2:183) and the Prophet saws told us of its benefits and the scholars have determined that the first ten days are for “Rahmat”(mercy) and the second ten are about” forgiveness from God” and the last ten give “freedom from the hellfires” is sufficient.

Being in the modern world, however, some of us, at least, feel the need to go deeper-into the inner experience and this is where phenomenology comes in.We need to look at the inner,experiential reality .

As I reflected on this( it may well have been an inspiration) I realized that an interesting parallel to Ramadan is the experience of pregnancy.The trigger for this thinking may well have been a difficult beginning to this year’s Ramadan and my recollections of the accounts of Kate Middleton, the duchess of Cambridge, and her difficult pregnancies being bed-ridden for months at the beginning of each of her pregnancies with overwhelming nausea.The details of her experience are not what is important here however,no more than the details of the philosophical systems of Husserl and Heidegger.What is interesting is that the three trimesters of pregnancy provide an interesting parallel to the three ten-day sections of Ramadan and I believe this can be helpful to us in understanding the process.

So, in Ramadan,the first ten days especially the early ones can be difficult for people.Just as women often experience nausea(morning-sickness) during the first trimester fasters will have a variety of symptoms as they take on the fast-headaches,dizziness,weakness,lack of concentration ,etc. Depending on the state of health of the practitioner this may last only a day or two or may continue for a longer period of time,for some intermittently throughout the month.

The second trimester of pregnancy usually is characterized by a subsidence of the ‘crisis mode’ ,less symptoms,a calmness and  a waiting.I would call this phase”paddling” and “incubation”. The baby is slowing growing and developing.The same is true in Ramadan.The worst is over.Now is the time of persistence and patience.

We all know where the third trimester of pregnancy leads! If we have had any contact with a woman going through it,we know they are literally “carrying a heavy load” ,exhausted,breathless at night and anticipating and fretting about the”apocalypse ‘to come.And then it is over.At this point the model breaks down somewhat as Ramadan is not as clearly defines in its finality.So for the last ten days  to be more accurate I would add in the model of the Shakespearian play which builds up to its climax(Lailat al Qadr) and its dénouement(the few days left after Lailat al Qadr. And the the Eid celebrations-in both cases.However for the woman, as opposed to the faster,the work has just begun!That is why Allah and his Prophet insist so strongly on the rights of the Mother!

I hope that helps you understand better the inner process of the month of fasting and makes it a more fulfilling and satisfying experience.I feel like it is helping me to think of it this way.And I can’t wait to see the baby at the end! Salaams,ibrahim

Islam, Metaphysics, Spiritual Practice, Sufism

Ramadan-A Newer and Deeper Perspective

Leave a comment

I have been struggling to get my head around our Ramadan practice for as long as I can remember.Yes,I know the Quranic injunctions and I am aware of most of the hadith and the scholarly analysis around this month. But I have never felt quite satisfied.For most people, it is simple,I understand.Allah says to fast,it is a religious injunction and we follow and thus get the rewards.And the reward is with Allah.I get it!

But there must be more! Allah does not prescribe things without reason and purpose.So what is the deeper reason and mystery here?!

And this morning while on my dhikr walk that is part of my daily routine,it came to me ! The “aha” experience.In essence Ramadan is a khalewah-a retreat- a time to go within ,to disengage from our social activities and to connect with our soul and with its Divine source!

Remember the first Ramadan!? It was our Prophet saws doing a retreat in the cave of hira in the mountains around Mecca.That is when the Quran came down and that was the start of our religion.So that is the quintessential Ramadan-the essence of Ramadan. After that the Prophet saws had a mission! He had to teach and build a community! So he could no longer do a monthly retreat like he had done in the past..But that doesn’t change the spirit of the practice-to renounce worldliness,to go within and contact the sacred.

Now,for most of us, we have obligations-whether work or family or study.We can’t stop doing those.But we can reduce the workload,we can certainly reduce socializing and we can change our focus.Some of us, like us retired folks, can even spend most of the time alone lol.And that is the spirit of the month-“azhod”-giving up.

I can already hear the naysayers lol.”What about Tarawih prayer? What about joining family members for iftar?What about doing good deeds-like feeding people during Ramadan?Yes,all of that is true.But the spirit is still that of khalewah.If you are able to go to tarawih and feel it incumbent on you ,then do so.But I would suggest using the Naqshbandi adage”alone with your Lord in the crowd”.Turn your focus away from the people and towards your Creator and the ruh that he has breathed into you.

Sometimes,in understanding matters,we need a “foil” i.e. the opposite of the truth that reflects back to us what we shouldn’t be doing! For me,all due respect to its depth of history and pious people,in this matter the foil was Cairo during Ramadan.All day the city was dead and after the call to prayer of Maghrib it converted into a Mardi-Gras like atmosphere! It is surely not the only Muslim community to do so! For me that is not the right attitude just like the Bacchanalian Mardi Gras of Rio de Jameiro is not fitting for the Christian tradition.So take this month to be quiet and contemplative and tune in with your Lord,as much as possible .You will not regret it.

This understanding has brought a certain comfort to my heart.I hope it does so for you as well.Salaams and Ramadan Kareem and Saleem, Sufi Ibrahim

Metaphysics, Modern Living, Psychology, Spiritual Practice, Uncategorized

Positivity Training.

Leave a comment

One of the great sheikhs of our time,sent by the famous Ahmad al Alawi of Mostaghanem , Algeria to Damascus was named Mohammad al Hashimi.May Allah raise his rank still further. The Damascenes were missing him dearly when he departed in 1961 so they went to see his khadim (servant) and asked him what he had learned from the great sheikh.He answered “I learned only one thing”.They were amazed.”Fourty years around the sheikh and you learnt only one thing?!”they said.”Yes” he responded.”Ok.Then what was that thing?” And he responded “fi kooli shay khair”(within everything is goodness”). And they left incredulous! But the servant had made a deep point that has echoes throughout the history of Islam and all the world religions for that matter.The essence of everything in Existence is goodness and Love!Hard to believe but True,nevertheless.

The next question becomes,of course,how do we get to that positivity?This question involves an overlap between psychology and spirituality! The psychological exploration involved the study on Happiness by George Valliant of Harvard University and the Positive Psychology movement promoted by Martin Seligman ,president of the American Psychological Association.The latter defined it as ‘the scientific study of what makes life most worth living” or “the scientific study of positive human functioning and flourishing on multiple levels that include the biological,personal,relational,institutional,cultural and global dimensions of life” Ugh,lol! Whenever an author throws in”scientific” along with a bunch of other jargon I cringe lol.Mostly it is an effort to increase their credibility- since science has become the religion of the masses. Ok ,Ibrahim.Watch your negativity lol

Now a religious,spiritual person will read these things and say:”What about God?!”. “How can you be happy in a random universe without a Creator and without an afterlife and accountability?” Good questions lol.But not particularly agreeable to the liberal,progressive,agnostic narrative of the times!

So,let us first look at what the psychologist,intellectual Seligman proposes and then we will get to a more spiritual and transcendent perspective.Mine and that of Sheikh Hashimi mentioned above.I will also provide some helpful practices inshallah.

So Seligman proposes the acronym PERMA .That stands for Positive Affect,Engagement,Relationships,Meaning and Accomplishments.Let us look at these one by one.

1)Positive Affect involves a wide range of feelings like happiness,joy,excitement and satisfaction.The problem here is that many of these are outside of  our control.Most spiritual people understand that we cannot really generate these feelings.They are,in fact gifts(‘niamat’) from our Creator.More of that later.

2)Engagement-in activities.That we can do! But,ever noticed what happens when you do?! It often ends in disappointment.Either you realize the people you are with are not what you expected(like my experience in Marxist groups lol) or you realize the cause you were fighting for like Socialism falls apart when you actually visit the countries that are practicing it -like Marxism in China at the time of the Cultrural Revolution.

In case you think this is limited to left-wing causes,I noticed something interesting during my psychiatric practice.Some of my patients with the most disappointing relationships I had seen were people with partners from the great human-rights movements of our times-Amnesty International, Médecins Sans Frontières and Greenpeace amongst others.This was at first very surprising- until I figured out that these people were ideologues.Their convictions were strong but their hearts were hard and insensitive.Oh.oh.Problem.I had noticed the same thing during my participation in left-wing groups.The right-wingers had better relationships.I was genuinely surprised! If you need a more public version of this truth, think of the marriages of George Bush senior and junior and Ronald Reagan vs. the marriages of F.D.R. J,F.K. and Clinton lol.Surprising,no?The people with the best ideas often have the worst hearts!

3)Relationships.Yes! But how do you do that? Relationships have become more and more difficult.I tell young people now that my ballpark figure for intimate relationships is 1/10.Only 10% are going to work ! One of the best-known researchers in Marital Therapy,John Gottman, says that if you follow marriages in America for 40 years there is a divorce rate around 60%! And that is marriages and old-timers lol. Imagine what it is like now?!Not a good place to start,for sure.Some people are able to replace that with good relationships at work.and others with good family relationships.But many are left out in the cold!

4)Meaning! Whoa! Is that ever a loaded term!? Now the nders often find that, in fact,they are sent back for a purpose.And we all have a purpose,no doubt.But it is very easy to get lost .With all the contingencies of modern life, it is easy to end up in survival mode guaranteeing one’s economical situation and that of their progeny.Fill in the rest of your time with entertainment and you are good to go!Or are you.You can easily end up with a dread of death and a painful sense of temporality Without a Creator,there can be no true meaning.We are then stuck with Existentialism which often enough concludes that suicide is the only rational way out!(Read Camus for further elucidation lol) Wa la howla wala quwatta.

5)Accomplishments?! And what are those accomplishments.Making a million dollars? Getting a Phd. or even better lol an M.D.?! When the Pakistani mothers in my community were pushing their children into med school ,I would invite them to come to my Continuing Ed Courses in medicine to see those docs after 20-30 years of practice”Is that what you would like for your children?” I would ask.They would come running after the talk and say: “You musn’t say that, Dr. Ibrahim(yes,I was one of those fortunate few m.d.s lol).You will discourage them”No I would answer in my all-too provocative way. “You are the ones who are discouraged.If that is their vocation ,it is fine,But if not,you are committing them to  a lifetime of misery”.But who cares about that when you can say that your son or daughter is a doctor lol?!

As you can see by now,I am not a big fan of the secular version of happiness.It inevitably breaks down when confronted with the tests and tragedies of life and with the inevitable sickness and death that accompanies old-age.So let us examine a more robust response-the spiritual one!

So far,so bad lol.I like to frame my articles according to the Islamic Formula of “laillaha illallah”(there is no god besides the One God).Tha tis we start by denying  the batil(the falsehood) and then we assert the positive-the Truth.So,here is what you have been waiting for lol- the positive!

A Protocol for developing Positivity:

In effect,if we look deeply,the entire religious/spiritual enterprise is about developing positivity. From trusting in God (tawakkul) to loving Him and His Prophet, to surrendering to His Will,it is all positivity-training.Nevertheless,in this article we will concentrate on four aspects of this practice.

1-Gratitude: Even the secularists agree to this one! In fact there is research to indicate that doing a gratitude practice helps with depression!If you Google the subject,you will find numerous articles to confirm this effect.What I am recommending here is that every night before you go to sleep,think of 3-5 things that happened during the day that you can be grateful for.It can even be for something negative that did not happen. It might sound something like this”I am grateful for the efficient snow-clearing operations that happen all around me during the winter making life that much easier in Canada.Or again”I am grateful that the huge icicles that fell off my roof as the thaw came in did not injure anyone”. You can see that the gratitude can be very specific to one’s particular situation.

Once again here you can see the advantage of being a believer! At least we know who we are grateful to-our Creator.Rabb Alameen(the Lord of the worlds).I guess there are people wpo get benefit just by being grateful to the forces of chance but that seems like small comfort to a metaphysician like myself lol

Now, as a believer,we should be grateful all the time,or at least many times during the day,not only at night.So remember the gratitude button.It is not always easy.Why is that? I like to say that the human brain is a compass that points south?!i.e. it is designed to indicate the negative,the dangerous,the tragic.The evolutionary biologists tell us that this has a survival benefit in it.It is better to misidentify the rock as a sabre-toothed tiger( no loss except for some anxiety lol) than misidentify the tiger as a rock(and get eaten unnecessarily!). Although this has an evolutionary advantage,it also has a spiritual,happiness disadvantage.We end up living in fear and worry  and doubt!

Let me give you a clinical anecdote to underline the issue here.I once had a client with a suspicious breast lump- who was scheduled for a biopsy.She was understandably freaked-out and we spent the entire session dealing with her anxiety.Two weeks later,she came in and immediately started complaining about her spouse(we’re used to that in psychotherapy lol). Something in me felt that this was not right.And then it clicked”One moment here”I said”Two weeks ago you were sure you were dying and would leave two children without a mother! What happened with the biopsy?” ” Oh,that” she responded” It was negative.I’m fine.But my husband….lol “. You see what had happened is the brain, geared to negativity mode, had shifted to the next problem!  Here is where the work begins! “One,moment here”I said.”Let’s take a moment to be happy and grateful that the lump was benign,that you’re going to live and be there for your children.” She laughed shyly!

So for each of us we have to catch the thing to be grateful for “on the fly” so to speak.Our brain will not flag it.It is set in negativity mode But our soul must if we want to be happy and grateful!

2-Philantrophy: This refers to thinking about the other ,considering the other,and doing for the other.In the Islamic traditions,our Prophet saws is the model for good character.It is said that when he arises on the Day of Judgment, his first words are “ummat, ummati(my community,my community) .”How are the others doing?” The polar opposite of Trump lol who is always thinking:”How does this affect me?”

Now philantrophy can take many forms and it has its own risks.It can take the form of charitable donations.So many good causes to donate to.Unfortunately this has become a cottage industry with the risk of corrupting the whole process and turning people off. I resent some of those heart-wrrenching ads about starving children and amputees and mistreated animals.They are ALL real and worthy causes.But there is something manipulative in this approach, something about the process that is “marketing ” and obnoxious.Allah knows our intentions however and will reward us accordingly.

Another form of philanthropy is simply doing a good deed like driving a neighbour who has no car to the grocery store or fixing someone’s leaky tap for free.All of this is charity.In fact our Prophet saws has said that even a smile is a form of charity. I like to remind Muslims with sour expressions on their faces(especially women lol) of that hadith when I go shopping lol.Our tradition is about being positive. This is what gives people shining faces with light.

Another form of philantrophy is listening and accompanying people who are having a hard time, emotionally, through their distress.Once again,be careful.If you take on too much pain ,you yourself will be negatively affected.

So very many ways of thinking and helping others.They are in front of us every day! But once again,we need to confront our egos! They are programmed to be selfish! Another survival advantage,the biologists will tell us in their cynical ways..Survival here- but negative consequences on the other side.Read about nders “Life Reviews” if you need confirmation.

I would like to complete this section with an apocryphal story from the Sufi traditions.There was once  a nasty,foul lady who used to hang out in the markets of Baghdad.She spent her time cursing people and speaking foul language.And then she died! Several students of Imam Junayd ,one of the greatest of the Sufis,saw her on the other side- in paradise!They couldn’t believe their eyes so they went to their teacher.”How could such a woman be in paradise ?” they asked.Al Junayd was quick to answer” One day there was a dog shivering in the cold,dying in the market.She took off her coat to help him be warm.For this deed alone, Allah forgave all her other sins!” Alhumdulillah!

3-Seeing the positive We have a number of expressions for this in English and French-“Seeing the silver lining in the cloud”;”seeing the glass as half-full rather than half-empty” and many others.The manoeuvre is always the same.”Look at the bright side”.Hamza Yusuf is fond of telling the story of a Moroccan or Mauritanian man who had very strong faith but had a bad stroke( May Allah spare us these kind of tests). Instead of complaining about his right side which was completely paralyzed ,he would point out how well his left side was working and attribute that to the Mercy of his Lord.A very high degree of faith indeed!

We have many occasions to do this practice. Some banal examples: Our sink blocks up in the kitchen”Thank God I have another sink in the bathroom”.Our child has A.DH.D. “Thank God,it’s not autism”. Our car has some issues.”Thank God,we have several good mechanics in the area.”There are countless ways we can count our blessings! And we should make it our duty to do so!

4-The Acceptance Practice (hot off the press)lol

In Sufism this is referred to as “rida” -officially translated as “satisfaction” or “contentment”

This just came to me! Only believers can benefit from this one ,I believe.We know that everything,yes everything, is from God.The Sufis say that not a molecule in the Universe moves without the permission of the Divine! Even the Advaita people like Robert Adams say “Everything is unfolding exactly as it should.There are NO mistakes in the Universe”. So here is how we apply that knowledge! Whatever occurs, especially what appears to be negative,we say: “This too is from Allah and I accept it” Then we find a good reason why that may be so.A simple personal example.Recently I had a problem with a tooth which previously had a root canal.My dentist looked at it,couldn’t quite figure it out and referred me to the root canal specialist.But he was overbooked and couldn’t see me for two months.A bummer,no? Not easy to accept.Then I thought”It is not really causing me any pain.Alhumdulillah.And the wait will train me in patience”(not one of my natural attributes lol.)The problem is still there but much of the disappointment is gone.And I know I can do even better than that in the future.

This last anecdote also refers  us back to our relationship to the body-source of so much grief! In my neck of the woods,the French Canadians like to greet us on New Years with “Bonne Année .Je vous souhaite la bonne santé. Après tout, c’est la santé qui est la pricipale”(Happy New Years .I wish you good health.After all,it’s health(physical health) that’s the most important!) .I used to let it pass.But now,for those who can handle it I respond: “One moment.That can’t be it! We are all condemned to ill-health and death at some point.So if it’s all about health,we’re really  in trouble!” .Most of them smile back but some ask the follow-up question:”So,what’s it about/” And I respond “It’s about Faith.And our relationship to the Creator”The believers smile.And the agnostics scowl lol.

So there you go! Four practices to maintain positivity.1) gratitude; 2) Philanthropy; 3) Seeing the positive in everything and 4) acceptance.Let’s get to work- you and  me!

Salaams,Sufi Ibrahim

 

 

Metaphysics, Modern Living, Spiritual Practice, Uncategorized

The Truth is in the Anecdotes!

Leave a comment
And btw-2…Sorry O worshipers at the altar of contemporary science but “The Truth is in the anecdotes!!“Ever notice that the Bible and the Torah and the Quran are full of teaching anecdotes! Not of data! In Islam we call these stories Qisas.That’s where the juice is! That’s where the real food is.The data is like dry dust-powdered food.As you like…H-m-m-m.