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Eloquence (balagha in Arabic) has to do with the beauty of language-its sounds and its flow. It is not the same as Truth. Truth can be beautiful or ugly or neither.It just states what is. There is often confusion between the two. Something can sound beautiful and be wrong or it can sound ugly and be True. Staying lucid is what is most important.
What is wrong with this society-that it keeps putting out more and more toxic devices and materials-like the new smart-meters?! Sickening -literally and metaphorically.The answer is that the outer toxicity is a reflection of an inner one.The inner toxicity is a combination of greed(disguised as a search for efficiency),insensitivity(to everything outside of “scientific” findings published in peer-reviewed journals) and deafness( to the pleas of victims of all sorts). What a toxic brew!
Who’s crazy?! All around me,I see an epidemic of cancer,Alzheimer’s and Autism! But the journalists are more concerned about a glacier breaking off Antartica.Let me give you an analogy.You’re 30 years old and can’t afford to pay your rent or buy your groceries.But you’re worrying about your retirement savings plan!Believe it or not but I’ve actually seen that- in therapy!
(Response to a comment glorifying the American constitution on July 4th,American Independence Day)
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Let’s look again at these principles in the light of what we’ve learnt from Islam:
1)Men are not created equal.Men, and women for that matter, are created in ranks-in a hierarchy.Some are naturally stronger,some are naturally more intelligent .And it even goes further.Some are born with good character and others are not.I learnt that from Sheikh Nazim’s ongoing talk about genetics in human life(“the blueprint” he called it) -and that was well before the genome project got started!
2)Life ,itself, is in His hands not ours.He can take it in a moment as He likes.
3) And liberty is conditioned by His rules and orders not by our whims and pleasures.
4) And happiness is the exception.Difficulties and testing is the rule.The Sheikh said 40 units of pain to one unit of pleasure.The paradox here is that real happiness(inner peace and satisfaction) requires often giving up on worldly happiness.Most people,perhaps especially Americans,do not see that.Watch the TV ads if you don’t believe me lol
So basically,this document(The American Constitution) is flawed from the git-go.And if you break it down it is flawed in a VERY fundamental way.It gives far too much importance to human choice and not nearly enough to Divine decree.So maybe it is not so surprising after all that America finds itself in such a lamentable position.But don’t feel bad as an American.The Sheikh had even less liking for the French Revolution and its themes of Fraternité,Égalité and Liberté lol.He saw that period as the beginning of the end!
Portraits of dunniya from today’s rounding:1) A 75 year-old overweight white-haired woman in the Natural Foods store pulling this thin man behind her who is not protesting.At first I think it’s her docile husband and then I realize it’s her 55-yr. old grey-haired handicapped son(? serious cerebral palsy with mental retardation).What misery! 2) On the drive home a bilaterally amputated middle-aged man,the stumps still bandaged, in an electric wheelchair with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth! I’m not making this up! It just happened.Yes,life IS suffering.The Buddha got that one right.But then he deviated when he said”There is a way out of this suffering” Wrong! There is a way to accept the suffering and not to add to it through mental elaboration.But there is no way out.Did you know that the Buddha,himself, died from food poisoning from eating spoiled meat!? So he too had suffering to the very end.Only death ends the suffering and that only in some cases.We will leave that contentious question for a later date.
Ramadan lessons: I get “patience” (from the hadith).That is obvious and Ramadan requires a lot of it.So much for those ornery Muslims who like to say:”It was so easy.It passed so quickly”.Then tell them they missed the point! But what about “taqwa”(from the Quran) -translated as piety or God-consciousness.The Christians would say God-fearing?If you look at the root of the word ‘taqwa’ it is ‘waqaa’ which has to do with protecting and safeguarding’.So we are safeguarding our relationship with God by not indulging our desires.Sometimes I think of Ramadan as a form of death-the death of the ego that feeds on worldly pleasures.A true blessing, in the guise of a hardship! Eid Mubarak to all.
What’s going on really in Washington?! The hard-hearted,sharp-toothed lawyers( think Comey, think Mueller) are attacking the corrupt businessmen(think Trump,think Kushner).Don’t forget that the lawyers are already parasites of corporations and political institutions as no-one else can afford their outlandish fees! Reminds me of those videos of a fight between the crocodile and the tiger at the edge of the water.Except now we have the liberal journalists watching all this and commenting”Aren’t those crocodiles so nice,helping us to get rid of those mean,hungry tigers?!”What a sad spectacle!
A friend of mine,who also happens to be a well-trained and reflective alim was shocked when he returned to Pakistan to study Islamic Economics .He mentioned how the people he met were fanatical about issues such as the length of pants men were wearing.If your pants went down to the ankle,you were already a kafir(unbeliever).In thinking about this, I realized another important source of terrorism besides the despair factor-fanaticism.There are strains of this fanaticism throughout the Islamic community nowadays.Whether it concerns how much hair a woman needs to cover(look at the old pictures of women in Pakistan and Palestine and you’ll know what I mean),how the sunnat has to be performed,what the meaning of ‘Isma’ is in respect of the Prophets a.s and what is halal in food and medicine,this strain of fanaticism runs deep in the Muslim community,especially in Third World countries.Although most of these people do not advocate murder as the remedy.when you look in their eyes at their reaction,you feel like they do want to kill you.This non-terroristic fanaticism needs to be addressed as well.After all,our Prophet saws did teach that ours is the Middle way,the way of moderation.
Notice: This posting may be upsetting to some people as it flies in the face of the liberal,egalitarian ethos that now is part of the social consensus.Nevertheless,this is what I observe in working with people and in my own life experience as well,so I feel it incumbent on me to articulate this position..I do believe that operationnalizing this understanding has the potential to relieve people from a lot of grief. As well,I was given a spiritual order many years ago to write about this highly controversial subject.I intend to honour that order by producing a book on this subject- provided that Allah gives me enough time on this plane to do so.It will not sound anything like the writings of John Grey or Guy Corneau ,may his soul rest in peace, lol
There is a male ego and a female ego and they are different.The male ego is sensitive to its need for leadership especially in the family context.And the female ego is closer to the needs of the nesting instinct.When the male ego gets out of balance it can lead to pathological narcissism of which we see an abundance in the political sphere.When the female ego gets out of balance ,it leads to pathological materialism and the idolatry of the family and children.
If we are to have harmonious relationships and thus a peaceful society, the needs of both types of ego need to be identified and fulfilled.This is NOT what is happening,in so many ways.If you are able to escape from your current ideological position ,you will be able to see the truth of what is being asserted here and possibly move in the direction of peace and harmony.But this will certainly require energetic self-observation and hard work.God be with you on this holy journey.
I am often asked which tariqat we represent.I have thought about this for a while and came to the conclusion that we are Chisthi,Naqshbandi and Shadhili.That means that we are carrying simultaneously the open-mindedness of the Indian Chisthi tradition(Pir Vilayat Khan),the balance between worldly duties and otherworldly aspirations of the Naqshbandis (Sheikh Nazim)and the single-minded focus on marifat(God-consciousness) of the Shadhili tariqat(Sheikh Abu-Qassim and Sheikh Nuh).A potent combo I must say!I feel both a sense of pride and humility at the grandeur of this transmission.Alhumdulillah.