The birds question the hoopoe and he advises them An ancient secret yielded to the birds When they had understood the hoopoe’s words – Their kinship with the Simorgh was now plain And all were eager to set off again. The homily returned them to the Way And with one voice the birds were heard […]
Archive | Quote of the Week RSS feed for this archive
Article of the Week; On Being a Human Being
Oh the seeker who wishes to learn the chemistry of secrets and follow the path of the ones who have found salvation! If you wish to know yourself, know that the One who created you has created you with two sides. One is your outside and the other is your inside.: Your outside is visible, […]
Quote of the week: The way of the Lover
Sufism has played an important role in my life. Here in this page, I am going to share with you all some interesting quotes on Sufism. In Sufism it is said he who tastes knows. See if you can feel the sweetness in the following quotes. I will be adding to this collection slowly over time.
Photo by Marius Grozea. Picture taken in Romania.
The Sufi is absent from himself and present with God.
- Hujwiri
The Sufis do not abandon this world, nor do they hold that human appetites must be done away with; they only discipline those desires that are in discordance with their religious life and the dictates of sound reason.
The do not throw away all the things of this world, nor do they go after them with a vengeance. Rather they know the true value and function of everything upon the earth. They save as much as is necessary. They eat as much as they need to stay healthy
They nourish their bodies and simultaneously set their hearts free. The Beloved becomes the focal point towards which their whole being leans. God becomes the object of their continual adoration and contemplation.
The perfect mystic is neither an ecstatic devotee lost in contemplation of Oneness nor a saintly recluse shunning all commerce with mankind. The true saint goes in and out among the people, eats and sleeps with them, buys and sells in the market, marries and takes part in social intercourse, and never forgets God for a single moment.
-Abu Said
Abu Sa’id : Biography
Abu Sa’id ibn Abi’l-Khayr (d. 440/1049), was an early Sufi shaykh who at different stages of his life was an ascetic, an antinomian ecstatic, and a spiritual guide. He received a Sufi transmission from Abu al-Fadl al-Hasan (or ibn al-Hasan) al-Sarakhsi, whom Abu Sa’id called his “pir” (a Persian word refering to a spiritual guide and often equivalent to “shaykh”). After the death of Abu al-Fadl, Abu Sa’id looked to Abu ‘Abbas al-Qassab (the butcher), whom Abu Sa’id called “shaykh,” for spiritual guidance. The hagiography Asrar al-tawhid is one of the two major sources for what we know of his life and teachings. It has been translated as The Secrets of God’s Mystical Oneness.
Related Articles
- Sufi festival has spirits in a whirl (independent.co.uk)
Wherever You Turn: The Mevlevi Whirling Ceremony
Wherever You Turn: The Mevlevi Whirling Ceremony
By: Kabir Helminski
Although practices of whirling, especially among the peoples of Central Asia, have existed from time immemorial, it was the thirteenth-century Sufi saint and poet Jalaluddin Rumi and his lineage, the Mevlevi Order, who developed whirling into a form of spiritual training and a high art.
Whirling, which requires an inner emptiness and a heightened awareness, is not a trance but an exercise of mindful presence and an act of service. While whirling, the student, or dervish, is conscious of several things at once; pure awareness uncluttered by thought, harmony with the other participating dervishes, an inner connection with the sheikh who is leading the ceremony, and a conscious opening of the heart to the Divine.
The basic form of whirling is this: the right foot is lifted up to the knee and returned to the same place from which it was first lifted, while the left foot and leg become the axis on which the whole body revolves 360 degrees in a counterclockwise direction, and with each revolution the name Allah is pronounced inwardly. The arms are extended with the right palm turned upwards, receiving Divine grace, and the left palm facing downwards, bestowing on the earth the Divine energy, which passes through the heart. Beginning dervishes must dedicate themselves to practicing this basic form before they can partake in a ceremony.
The ceremony begins when the sheikh and dervishes walk majestically around the ceremonial space three times in a procession. Then, at a specific point on the circle they bow to each other, face-to-face, essence to essence. They are reenacting the journey of life, the progression from mineral, to vegetable, to animal, to human, and, finally, to a state beyond ego in which they are “resurrected” by Love.
The bulk of the ceremony is divided into four sessions of whirling, approximately ten minutes long, called selams. The first selam ends when the music stops. The dervishes halt, facing the sheikh. The movement is so quick that their billowing skirts wrap around their legs as they bow. The dervishes do a second selam, similar to the first but accompanied by different music. Then they do a third and most ecstatic selam, which represents union with the Divine. The third selam begins with the sheikh steps forward and silently recites a prayer:
May Alllah grant you total soundness, O travelers on the Way of Love. May the Beloved remove the veils from your eyes and reveal to you the secrets of your time and of the true center.
In the fourth and final selam the dervishes cluster around the sheikh, who is now for the first time revolving slowly in the center. This selam represents receiving one’s selfhood back, now with a whole new state of being. It ends when a recitation of the Qur’an begins.
The whirling ceremony is one important facet of a way of life designed to maximize Divine remembrance, which in Islam is considered the highest of all human activities. The ceremony is typically offered once a week in a Mevlevi tekkye or center. It is preceded by spiritual conversation and discussion (sohbet), similar to what Hindus call satsang. This is followed by salaat, the ritual prayer of Islam, performed at five specified times during the day. Then there is Zikr (chanting the name of God) and the whirling ceremony itself. Immediately after the ceremony, the dervishes meditate for as long as their obligations permit, sometimes late into the night.
The whirling ceremony of the Mevlevis serves two main functions. First, it strengthens the bonds of affection and respect within the community of seekers. More importantly, it serves as a means for communion with the Divine, developing in individuals the capacity to be in touch with spiritual reality in the midst of the most demanding activities of everyday life.
The goal of Mevlevi training, including whirling, is to beautify and spiritualize the self through cultivating various artistic and intellectual skills and practicing service and contemplation. For more than seven hundred years the Mevlevi Order has been a crucible of transformation, giving birth to a highly refined aesthetic culture and providing a spiritual discipline that has brought many souls to human maturity.
Kabir Helminski is a sheikh of the Mevlevi Order and a noted author and translator.
Related Articles
- CanAsian dance festival casts the net wide (thestar.com)
Rumi: You are Joy and We Are Laughter
Portrait of an old man dressing a Millstone from the collection of the Smithsonian Institute
O my God, our intoxicated eyes have blurred our vision.
Our burdens have been made heavy, forgive us.
You are hidden, and yet from East to West
You have filled the world with Your radiance.
Your Light is more magnificent than sunrise or sunset,
and You are the inmost ground of consciousness
revealing the secrets we hold.
You are an explosive force causing our damned up rivers to burst forth.
You whose essence is hidden while Your gifts are manifest,
You are like water and we are like millstones.
You are like wind and we are like dust.
The wind is hidden while the dust is plainly seen.
You are the invisible spring, and we are Your lush garden.
You are the Spirit of life and we are like hand and foot.
Spirit causes the hand to close and open.
You are intelligence; we are Your voice.
Your intelligence causes this tongue to speak.
You are joy and we are laughter,
for we are the result of the blessing of Your joy.
All our movement is really a continual profession of faith,
bearing witness to Your eternal power,
just as the powerful turning of the millstone professes faith in the river’s existence.
Dust settles upon my head and upon my metaphors,
for You are beyond anything we can ever think or say.
[Mathnawi V, 3307-3319]
Translation by Reynold A. Nicholson
O my God, our intoxicated eyes have blurred our vision.
Our burdens have been made heavy, forgive us.
You are hidden, and yet from East to West
You have filled the world with Your radiance.
Your Light is more magnificent than sunrise or sunset,
and You are the inmost ground of consciousness
revealing the secrets we hold.
You are an explosive force causing our damned up rivers to burst forth.
You whose essence is hidden while Your gifts are manifest,
You are like water and we are like millstones.
You are like wind and we are like dust.
The wind is hidden while the dust is plainly seen.
You are the invisible spring, and we are Your lush garden.
You are the Spirit of life and we are like hand and foot.
Spirit causes the hand to close and open.
You are intelligence; we are Your voice.
Your intelligence causes this tongue to speak.
You are joy and we are laughter,
for we are the result of the blessing of Your joy.
All our movement is really a continual profession of faith,
bearing witness to Your eternal power,
just as the powerful turning of the millstone professes faith in the river’s existence.
Dust settles upon my head and upon my metaphors,
for You are beyond anything we can ever think or say.
And yet, this servant cannot stop trying to express Your beauty,
in every moment, let my soul be Your carpet.
Quote of the week by Rumi
Image via Wikipedia
“One thing must not be forgotten. Forget all else, but remember this, and you will have no regrets. Remember everything else, but ignore this one thing, and you will have done nothing. It is as if a king sent you on a mission to a foreign land to perform one special task for him. If you do a hundred things, but not this appointed task, what have you accomplished? Human beings come into this world for a particular purpose, and if they forget it they would have done nothing at all.”
—Mevlana Rumi, 13th Century Muslim Poet and Sufi Mystic.
Related Articles
- “Something, something”-Rumi, whoever’s roomy that was! (assmabasalamah.wordpress.com)
- Can Sufism Defuse Terrorism? (time.com)
What’s so scary about Muslims? An Essay by Yilmaz Alimoglu
I sometimes wonder why people are so frightened of Muslims. Are we that scary? Islam has been presented in the mass media and books written by scholars as an aggressive, violent and intolerant religion. Muslims are to be blamed for the misconceptions as well. As a Canadian Muslim, I am as terrified as you might […]
What do I think of the Buddha? by Yilmaz Alimoglu
A wonder of wonders. An awakened soul is the most precious pearl in a sea filled with jewels and stones. The Buddha was one of the most brilliant pearls. He suffered greatly to become the soul we think we know. His father was a feudal lord, a king. Siddhartha Gautama was an exceptionally handsome person. […]
Excerpts from the book
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© Yilmaz Alimoglu. 2010-2015
Facebook Book Page
About The Author
Recent Comments