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Table of contents
Letter from the Editor 6
Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar, Ph.D.
Poetry: Rumi, From Shams-i Tabriz Ghazaliyat 9
Principles of Sufism 10
Nahid Angha, Ph.D.
Essential Teachings Along the Spiritual Path 12
Nahid Angha, Ph.D.
Kashkul: The Bowl of Wandering Dervishes 15
Poetry: Shah Maghsoud Sadiq Angha 16
The Journey of Transformation 18
Amelia Amineh Pryor, Ph.D.
A Reflection of Qur’an’s Sura Fifty-five 22
Victor Sinow
Poetry: Hakim Sana’i Ghaznawi 24
Understanding the Tariqa Tijjaniyyah 26
Khalifa Aliyu Ahmed Abulfathi
Poetry: Second tarji‘band from the Diwan of Hallaj 29
Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba 30
Sheikh Salman Baruti
Seeds of Change 32
Ana Perez-Chisti, Ph.D.
99 Names: al Alim 34
Sarah Hastings Mullin, Ph.D.
Echoing in the Breeze: The Songs of the Soul Festival 36
Soraya Chase Clow, Ph.D.
Beyond Identification: Dimensions of Presence 38
Jamal Granick, Ph.D.
The Green Sea of Heaven: Interview 40
Ashley Werner & Victor Sinow
SWO Grant: 2024 Grantees 42
Women’s Wisdom: Women in Action
Speaker Series Report: Eddie Zapaca 44
United Nations Report 52
Photograph by Soraya Chase Clow
Contributing Writers & Artists
Khalifa Aliyu Ahmed Abulfathi is a renowned Islamic scholar and spiritual leader of the Tijjani spiritual path in Africa whose Zawiya is in Nigeria but with millions of followers across Africa and the globe. He is an active reformer, educator, philanthropist, industrialist, and international bridge builder. He is affiliated with many Islamic and Sufi organisations including the International Association of Sufism USA-Nigeria.
Sheikh Salman Baruti has a MSW from the UC Berkeley School of Social Work and is a LCSW with many years of practice in the Bay Area. He is a published author and a Sufi of the Uwaiysi tariqat.
Dr. Ana Perez-Chisti, also known as Aadya Murshida (Senior Sufi Teacher) is an ordained minister and President of the Sufi Universal Fraternal Institute, based in California. She is the head of the Religious Activity for the Sufi Movement International and conducts a training program in the study of Comparative World Religions, Sufi Esoteric Studies, Ethics, Fourth Wave Feminine Principles, Psychology, and Philosophy. Retired Professor Emeritus, she has a private psychological practice and tutors graduate students. Publications available on Amazon: Sweet Reign-Fourth Wave Feminine Principles; Three Rings and Swords-The Bushido Code and Stories of the Samurai; Peace with All-Akbar, the First Interfaith Mogul King; Journey to the Beloved; Originally Blessed; Infinite Realities-Compendium on the Abhidhamma; Farming the Heart (Available by private order).
Soraya Chase Clow, Ph.D. is a founding member of IAS and an Uwaiysi tariqat Sufi. She serves as President of the Board of Directors for the IAS Community Healing Centers, as a member of the IAS Board of Trustees, and as a singer/songwriter in Taneen Sufi Music Ensemble. A photographer and a retired Associate Professor of Humanities, her art practice and research interests intersect in the fields of Sufism, environmental arts & humanities, and comparative cultural studies.
Jamal Granick, Ph.D. is a psychotherapist, licensed in both California and New Mexico, who has taught psychology at the graduate level, and lectured on the topic of spirituality and psychology for many years at conferences, both locally and internationally. His doctoral research studied therapist presence as a central role in psychotherapy effectiveness. Dr. Granick holds a fifth-degree blackbelt in Aikido. He is a Sufi of the Uwaiysi tariqat.
Mustafa Mahboubmojaz is an Iranian Sufi musician, artist, and professor of Tanbour and calligraphy based in France. A Sufi seeks closeness to God and self-knowledge through love and worship, according to Mostafa, and calligraphy has evolved into a sacred art form to express love for the eternal beloved. In moments of separation, the calligrapher uses pen and paper to take an emotion from heart and record it, as lover repeats the name of their beloved.
Sarah Hastings Mullin Ph.D. is a member of the International Association of Sufism, Sufi Women Organization, and is on the Editorial Board of Sufism: An Inquiry. She is a clinical psychologist with a private practice and is the author of Practice & Transformation: The Way to Divine Qualities and Characteristics and The Book of Self, both regard self-development in Sufism as taught by Seyyedeh Dr. Nahid Angha and Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar. She holds a second degree blackbelt in Aikido. She is a Sufi of the Uwaiysi tariqat.
Amineh Amelia Pryor, Ph.D., LMFT, LPCC, holds a Ph.D. in East-West Psychology, with a focus on Sufi Psychology. She is a published author of books and many articles on spirituality, psychology, consciousness, and science, and has lectured locally and internationally. Dr. Pryor is a founding member and codirector of the Community Healing Centers, and a Sufi of the Uwaiysi tariqat.
Anthony Taher Roybal is a long-time member of the International Association of Sufism, a drummer in Taneen Sufi Music Ensemble, and the provider of technical support for IAS. Now retired from a profession in Information Technology, he continues to pursue his passion for photography, traveling throughout the Western half of the United States to create images of its exquisite natural beauty. He is a Sufi of the Uwaiysi tariqat
Victor Sinow holds a Masters degree of Engineering in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a focus on semiconductor devices, analog integrated circuit design, and power conversion. Victor has had formal instruction in electromagnetic wave theory, Einstein’s theories of relativity, frequency domain analysis, and quantum physics as it relates to modern semiconductor device design. As a result of this instruction, Victor has a strong working knowledge of the fundamental theories that underpin much of modern particle physics as well as the modern understanding of gravity and space/time. Victor serves as the Senior Principal Design Engineer for a semiconductor company developing efficient power conversion circuits from novel materials.
Ashely Werner is a practicing attorney whose focus is on ensuring that communities across California have access to a healthy environment and the resources necessary to thrive. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics and Religion from Swarthmore College and a Juris Doctor, with a Certificate in Human Rights and International Justice, from Boston College Law School. She is an Uwaiysi Sufi under the guidance of Sufi Masters Seyyedeh Nahid Angha, Ph.D. and Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar, Ph.D.
Birth and Destiny
Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar, Ph.D.
Our spiritual seekers and mystics tell us that, through practice, a practitioner is capable of accessing what is hidden.
Thebirth of humankind, within the whirlpool of the world, includes questions about our own destiny, now and in the future.
At the very moment of conception, the first cell begins to divide according to the blueprint and information that comes together from the two lineages of male and female. At this moment, and under this process, the destiny of humankind, in its corporeal form, within the boundaries of nature, begins. And as it begins, it is consumed by its transformation, within the space-time dimensions until the time it disappears from sight. Yet, what happens to that entity, manifested on the steps of nature, for a specified period of time? Where does it go? Will it continue its destiny within the boundary of the space-time dimensions, or will it follow a whole different dimension—a dimension not yet known to us?
For centuries, human societies have been searching for answers to these essential questions. Some have focused on natural phenomena and observable, measurable laws of nature in order to discover and understand the underlying principles. They developed science and its branches, as well as philosophical doctrines. Others have paid more attention to their intuition, experience, and self-knowledge. They developed religions and spirituality. Both these categories of researchers and seekers have been looking for answers to the same questions: how did this universe begin, where does it go, and what is the human destiny in this magnificent whirlpool of existence?
We learn in science that we cannot separate time from space—that we are bound to these four dimensions of time and space. We also learn that time, or perhaps
the experience it, moves more quickly or slowly as we approach the speed of light or experience stronger gravity. We all experience that as we move more quickly, it seems that time slows down! This theory of science can help us to find some answers to our essential question: What is the destiny of humankind after his physical body returns to earth and his ashes are scattered? Science helps us to reflect more on the wisdom and experiences of spiritual groups who recommend and praise righteous deeds and meditation to transform our energies into stronger focus and pass through deeper dimensions.
These spiritual researchers and seekers focus on selfknowledge and direct experience. They seek to understand reality. To achieve that goal, the founders of religion and their followers developed a system for practice. The system includes archetype, ideology, and a strong belief in one dominating power, and they referred to this ultimate power as God, most gracious and merciful, all-knowing, and the creator of the whole world. Yet the God who gives form and fashioned creation remains absolutely formless, the most stable and everlasting. This group also argues that what we are looking for is absolutely entrusted to us; in other words, we have what we are looking for, and searching to find answers to the human creation, to the destiny of humankind, may be our innate quest. They do not separate God from creation; they do not see a duality in what is seen and what is unseen.
We read in a hadith from Imam Ja’far Sadeq (Muslim scholar, d. 765) that the image of the human (insāni) is the greatest proof of its creation, for
this is a book founded on Divine wisdom, inclusive of the images of the two worlds; hidden and appearance, a straight path toward all goodness; a bridge between the heaven [hidden] and hell [appearance]. In other words, the human system and its corporeal form is, in fact, the apparent and hidden energies. The eye that sees is inclusive of the apparent organ as well as the hidden energy of seeing; the ear that hears is inclusive of the organ and the hidden energy of hearing, and so forth. These tools are a limited bridge to the greater energies, between apparent and hidden. Our spiritual seekers and mystics tell us that, through practice, a practitioner is capable of accessing what is hidden.
Images and colours, melodies and songs may captivate our sense perceptions, but the beauty, mystery, and hidden meaning of each being is beyond the perception of the senses.
A seed is planted in the soil. Nourished by water and the correct conditions, it begins to grow even in that deep darkness and solitude of the earth. The seed possesses everything it needs. The reason for its progress is not perceptible, except as it opens and begins to reach for sunlight. This simplicity and focus of motion are, in fact, a good example for the human being to reflect and learn from.
Spirituality encourages humankind to pay more attention to the mystery of the heart, the first seed of life. It is from this seed that all other seeds are nourished and survive. Paying attention to the heart becomes one of the essential teachings in the spiritual path.
Photograph by Anthony Taher Roybal
From Shams-i Tabriz Ghazaliyat
I was joyfully searching in the crowd of the crowd of my mind
Realized the beautiful beloved has found me, even in that crowd. I was hiding from her eyes, running away from that old tavern
Yet she saw me again and she found me a second time. Why am I running away, there is no-where to hide in the cycles of time
Why am I hiding away, all is visible to her lovely eyes.
She knows my deepest secrets hidden in my crowded thoughts No wonder she sees me within the crowd of that crowd
Rejoice! The alluring beauty is seeking me
Rejoice! The mysterious veiled has found me.
Remains no wisdom, no listening, not talks
She is the essence of wisdom, the talk, and the love Glory! Glory! The infinite within the eternal has finally found me, Even within all these crowds of the crowded thoughts.
Jalal al-Din Muhammad Balkhi known as Rumi, Gozideh Ghazaliyat Shams (Tehran: Kitab khaneh Habibi, 1975) ghazal 54, p. 68. Translated by Nahid Angha, Ph. D.
Identity, Nature & Technology
Nahid Angha, Ph.D.
Havewe lost our identity, our harmony with nature, and the daily experience of our oneness with the Divine?
Human civilization rests on the ancient foundation of the human being’s quest for knowledge: the basic need to master nature and to quench the constant thirst for understanding.
History consists of this search for knowledge; its ages have been defined by the successive stages of that quest. From the first human societies, human beings developed a multitude of means to rationalize and overcome the mysteries of the natural world. They began to collect observations, bring them together coherently, and find reasons for natural phenomena that allowed them to live a better life—to prolong their lives against the threats of climate, catastrophe, and accident; to live in health by making the most of what nature offered; and to make the natural world their own, becoming part of a harmonious balance and addressing the wonder of the wholeness of being.
Humans, who were themselves a part of the world, began to understand the forces of nature not only as a necessary means of survival, but also as beautiful representations of Divine power—to be loved, cherished, and respected. The great blue dome of the sky, the majestic cycles of the stars, the miraculous daily rising of the sun, the regular succession of the seasons, and the return of spring—all of these gave humans a sense of the universality of the divine presentation, remind-
ing them of their own place in that sacred universe of being. A closeness to nature grew within the hearts of humans. You may look up towards the sky at night and see yourself there, in harmony with the same cycles of the distant galaxies and the vastness of space. You may begin to wonder at this majestic, awesome beauty and come to understand that an eternal power of such grandeur is truly worthy of your devotion and love. Such beauty justifies your belief in revering nature and the beyond. Such a sensation may even remind you of what the Sufis have said: one should become annihilated in this eternal beauty, like the raindrop that falls into the ocean to become the ocean, like stars that disappear in the sunrise.
But with the explosion of technology in the last century and its ever-increasing dominance over both humans and nature, the face of human life has changed, as the wholeness of being withdraws from our presence. Technology has given us a great many opportunities to confront nature as an enemy. Diseases are cured, life has been prolonged, and means of education and communication have proliferated. Tele/cell/ phone communications, television, and the Internet— all of these artificial structures have brought us closer together, yet such advancements have also brought us into opposition to one another. Human privacy, a vital part of the destiny of the individual soul, is lost in the massive pervasiveness of communications. Technology advances at an unprecedented speed, and we, as
Remember Me, I remember you.
Be thankful, and never ungrateful.
(Quran 2:152)
individuals, see ourselves in danger of being left abandoned, lost in the wake of a technical world that also seems to move ahead of us, outside of our control. New political ideologies and great economic organizations have become influential controlling agents over our lives. It seems as if human beings have no privacy, no place of their own, and no way of escaping subordination to the titanic powers that dominate their lives. Technology has brought great comfort to our lives, together with innumerable choices; certainly, it has contributed a wealth of things, a wealth of having. But what of the wealth of being, our original inheritance of nature from the sacred universe of being? Here, technology has not enriched us but rather impoverished our world, depriving us of what is holy, namely, the wholeness of being—the being of oneness with ourselves, with nature, and so with the Divine. Technology has impoverished our world at the deepest level, the being of its basic reality. In the process of accumulating things, we have lost our identity, our harmony with nature. And so, our hopes for the future, our concern for what is right and good, are called into question. We live longer, but we live lonely. National and international conflicts for power deprive our lives of peace. Governments are not the choice of the wise, but of those who have financial and economic power. For forces such as those, the human being has become a number, an open book. Our identity is threatened by worldly conflicts, while our religion has also become a
domain of manipulation, a marketplace for the solicitors of faith, where spiritual performers maneuver and impostors call the ignorant to violence. At times, I return to memories of old. I come back to an open space. I raise my eyes to the blue dome of the heavens at night. And there, I see again the majestic beauty of the sparkling galaxies, and I wonder: How can a human being come to understand this magnificent richness of grandeur? How can a human being, in their limited being, come to understand the majestic secret behind all of this? Merely opening one’s eyes prompts the question of who truly is the creator of such perfect order and beauty, of all these worlds, seen and unseen; all these hearts that beat for the love of life. Who can come to this unity if not the absolute Sacred, beating at the very heart of humanity?
It is then that I truly understand the meaning of the words, “Whoever knows oneself, knows one’s absolute reality, the Divine.” It is in that moment that I truly grasp the significance of the profound verses of the Quran: “Call upon Me, and I will answer; Remember Me, I will remember you.”
I invite us all to go back to the times lost, so that you, too, may witness the beauty of this Being and fall in love all over again with the magnetic richness of what is the absolute Sacred, the Universe of Being, the Life manifesting itself in every beat of a living heart.
Excerpts from Principles of Sufism1
Nahid Angha, Ph.D.
METAPHORS AND TERMINOLOGY
Sufi masters have developed a complex language of metaphors and terminology to refer to the mystical journey, through which the heart seeks the union of the seen and the unseen, the corporeal and the metaphysical, the human and the Essence (dhāt). The seeker longs to become united with the Sought; the ‘self’ travels to reabsorb the ‘Self’; and the servant (abid) uncovers the true nature of the Sovereign (rabb), realizing in the process that Sovereignty (rububiyyat) is, in fact, the very nature of servanthood (ubudiyyat), according to a hadith of the Prophet. Among the most important terms used in Sufism are Station (Maqām) and State (Hāl).
STATION (MAQĀM) AND STATE (HĀL)
In a spiritual journey, as in any journey in life, travelers will pass through a series of stations before arriving at their destination or goal. A station (maqām) is a stable spiritual position that practitioners reach through their own attributes and efforts. A state (hāl) represents a transitory mode of being, one that may flash or simmer but will ultimately disappear. A seeker may experience states of ecstasy, happiness, despair, or yearning for proximity to the Divine, among others. These are not static; they change over time.
According to many Sufi masters, the first station for a practitioner is tawbah, or repentance. Repentance alludes to the fact that all travelers must leave their location behind to embark on a journey with a new destination; in the language of spirituality, they must free themselves from the distractions of the world, and from multiplicity and duality. To arrive at that understanding, the travelers undergo a process of purification focused on ridding them of what is not at the core of their being. The sadr is the first level of the heart to undergo such purification. At this station, practitioners must free themselves from the changeable material world. This does not mean that they can’t enjoy life but rather that their hearts should remain unattached from the world, for attachment deprives them of the inner stability and equilibrium that they seek. They live in the world, but the world does not control them. The traveler cannot enter the next station of a spiritual journey without having perfected the principles of the previous one. Hujwiri also defines maqām in his Kashf, writing that a station is an act and that practitioners must practice the principle of a station until its tenet is perfected to the best of their ability.2
Other conceptions are concealment and self-manifestation (satr va-tajalli). Divine self-manifestation (tajalli) is another aspect of how Sufis experience the Divine.
Satr, in the literal sense, is veiling; in Sufi terminology, it refers to the veil that prevents a human being from witnessing and understanding Divine Presence. Tajalli is the act by which divine light illuminates the heart of the seeker, lifting that veil to reveal Reality. The metaphor of the heart’s mirror is often used in Sufi literature to represent how the practitioner receives and reflects light from the Divine. The purer the mirror, the more accurate its reflected image. Thus, to become like a mirror reflecting divine light, seekers must purify their hearts. Even though the Divine manifests itself in and to all forms, one person may be veiled, while another person may be able to see clearly. For those who are aware of the Divine
are glad tidings (Qur’ān 10:64). Such glad tidings may involve the seeker attaining union with the Sought or becoming, as Sheikh ‘Abdullah Ansāri writes, like “a raindrop that falls into the ocean to become united with the ocean” “as the star disappears into the sunlight, so the one who reaches God reaches oneself.”3
1 Excerpts from Nahid Angha, Principles of Sufism (California: International Association of Sufism Publications, 2024), 23-29.
2 Abu ’l-Hasan Hujwiri, Kashf al-mahjub, edited by Valentin Schukovski (Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1957.ʿIrāqi, Fakhr al-Din. Lama’āt. In Jalvahay), 181.
3 Abdullah Ansāri, Stations of the Sufi Path: The “One Hundred Fields”(Sad Maydan) of Abdullah Ansari of Herat, translated with commentary by Nahid Angha (Cambridge, England: Archetype, 2011), 102.
Photograph by Anthony Taher Roybal
The eye of the beloved is shut to her own beauty; she cannot perceive her beauty except in the mirror of the lover’s love.
from Ahmad Ghazzali, Risalat-i sawanih va-risalai dar mu ‘izeh, compiled by Javad Nourbakhsh (Tehran: Chapkhani Ferdowsi, 1973), 19, translated by Nahid Angha, Ph.D.
Photograph by Soraya Chase Clow
Kashkul: The Bowl of the
Wandering Dervishes
Kashkul is a bowl, a hollowed-out sea-coconut, usually in the shape of the crescent moon that was carried by the wandering dervishes. Kashkul may also be made from metals, wood, or even ceramic. It “has a number of metaphorical associations. For example, it represents the cleansing of a Sufi’s soul of all extraneous earthly desires in preparation for the acceptance of Divine love and a dervish’s life of poverty.” 1 Sometimes inscription and excerpts from the Qur’an, or praises attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib are skillfully carved into the body of the vessel. Kashkul has chain that makes it easy to carry over the shoulder.
1 For more information about kashkul, see Agha Khan Museum: https://www.agakhanmuseum.org/collection/artifact/beggarsbowl-kashkul-akm612; Ali Akbar Dehkhuda, “Kashkul’ in Lughat Nameh, edited by Muhammad Mu’in, Seyyed Ja’far Shahidi (Tehran: Mu’asise lughsat nameh dehkhuda, 1998) vol 12, 18371.
Photo: Beggar’s Bowl (Kashkul ). Made in Iran, late 19th–early 20th century. Metal. Gift of Jonathan Lipkin, 2018. Accession Number: 2018.665.1 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/786860
I thrust aside prayer rug and rosary, once and for all
Only your love remains, all else are but nonsensical falls
The wise has thrown the burden of desires into mire
And, I, drunken by the eternal love, reside in the circle of wanderers
Leave the common call and prayers, the deceptive piety of the unaware, Be led by the Sacred call, wash away rust from the heart of the heart
Seek longing, not cure, come without your ego and self-desire
If yearning for the union, then settle in nonexistence, away from invented thoughts
When drunkard sets his flag on the deepness of eternal
The common knowledge of the wise becomes like thorn growing on the walls
In the winery of the heart I am a drunkard without sorrow, Intoxicated by the eternal wine, no robes, no turbans were desired.
I worship in the temple, I pray in the Mosque, I am drunk, I am pious, a worshipper in ka‘ba as well as tavern
The light of the heart is my mirror, the glory of the Mountain lies within my chest I am the eternal secret of truth (haq), hidden in the whirlpools of time
I am the cloak and the revealer, I am the Mountain and the burning bush I am ka‘ba and the temple, I am the Gate and the cycle whirling within cycles of time.
Divine light reflected upon the tree of life, the heart became His Mountain, I am a drunkard, beholding the divine truth, lost in the market places of times.
Everyone has taken a path: Majnun the path of life, musician the path of the reed, The Wine Bearer the path of Wine, Angha the path to the Beloved, and Mansur drunken by his own sacrifice.
Nahid Angha, Selected Nasta’liq Calligraphy Scripts and Poems from Shah Maghsoud Sadiq Angha (California: IAS Publications, 2023), 78
The Journey of Transformation
This article is adapted from a presentation given at the 40 Days: Alchemy of Tranquility retreat in January 2024.
In Sufism, we look for the line of life and our concentrated essence, studying energy and matter and exploring how they work in our systems. We share in the history of existence, our bodies made of elements and properties that are found in the universe and throughout creation. In this sense, our transformation started long ago, when, through heating and cooling, expansion and contraction, elements began to form in the vastness of space. This process continued for about 13.8 billion years to bring us to today, where each of us is unique in ourselves and amongst all of creation—each of us is part of the whole, yet each of us inimitable.
As we learn more about our existence and our being, we begin to see the blueprint, the destiny of creation from the beginning. As part of creation, we may learn principles and practices to bring balance and stability to our lives and to transform our awareness of the stable point within us.
As we live in the physical universe, we also experience continual change. There are essential distinctions
between change and transformation, however. Change is constant flux. We change, and we can change back. For example, we change our minds, our diets, our clothes, our moods, where we live, and our relationships.
Transformation, on the other hand, is a shift—transform—such as a seed sprouting and growing into a plant. Transformation follows a process that may be comprised of a series of changes, but these changes cannot be reversed. The plant cannot return to the original seed—it is on a trajectory and a guided journey.
To support the process of transformation we have psychospiritual practices, such as concentrated meditation and using the energy of zikr, to help us transform from physicality and sensation to focusing our essential or life energy. We have the potential to transform from a temporary and daily existence to our primary and essential selves.
Our goal in practice is to track change and transformation in ourselves, becoming aware of our many small choices and directing them towards a greater goal than
Amineh Amelia Pryor, Ph. D.
physical life. In Sufism, every decision has intention behind it, and with clear intention we access the wisdom to let us know if we’re on track, in balance, or in need of adjustment.
A teacher who knows the road and its rules is essential to help us clarify our intentions and continue our respective paths in balance. Our journey requires knowledge of the body, psychology, and spirituality as well as the ability to track existence from the beginning to the end, from eternity to eternity, with a waystation in physicality.
tinuing exactly from where each of us is right now. We have travelled in the physical realm from the formation of our galaxy and solar system. Consider the magnitude of this journey. On this journey there is a source of energy, guidance, and wisdom that is essential to and innate in the journey and in each of us.
Transformation towards our essential selves brings confidence, enlarges our perspectives, and hones our practice to focus and concentrate on the point of connection of self to whole. If we can find that point, we find our entire journey, from origin to destination, and can see every point along the way.
We each have a connection. Transformation involves gaining awareness of that connection, and, in doing so, we move from state to state, and station to station, con-
As we continue to concentrate this energy and stabilize our awareness, we reduce and remove distractions and attachments. In this practice, we consider: Who am I beyond my physical being? How can I transform from wandering in my mind to experiencing in my heart? Am I able to locate the source of life in my heart with assurance and constancy?
Transformation is imbued in every living being and every aspect of creation. Our potential depends on taking control of our journey, so that when the physical components return to their foundation, our connection to the energy beyond them continues. Returning our awareness to our origin in eternity is the goal and our human potential.
Photograph by Soraya Chase Clow
Inspiration: Light of Stillness
Seyyed Ali Kianfar, Shah Nazar Uwaiysi
Compiled by Saleh Arthur Scott
Sufi Wisdom: The Collected Words of Sufi Master Nahid Angha
Compiled by Arife Ellen Hammerle, Ph.D.
Caravan: Biographies from the Sufism Symposia 1994-2014
Introduction by Nahid Angha, Ph.D.
Illumination of the Names: Meditation by Sufi Masters on the Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God
Introduction from the Teachings of Sufi Master Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar
Compiled by Glenn Pascall
Seasons of the Soul: The Spoken Wisdom of Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar
Compiled by Glenn Pascall & Saana Joy Carey, Ph.D.
Inspirations on The Holy Qur’an
Introduction by Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar
Seasons of Transformation Compiled by Saleh Arthur Scott
Human Self Volume 1: Body by Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar, et.al.
Reflections by Arife Ellen Hammerle, Ph.D.
The Book of Self by Sarah
Show Us the Straight Way: the intimate act of talking to God in Prayer by Halima JoAnn Haymaker
Sufism: Self, Path and Guide by Amineh
Hastings Mullin, Ph.D.
Amelia Pryor, Ph.D.
A Reflection on Surah Fifty-five of the Qur’an
By Victor Sinow
Bismillāh Ar-Rahmān Ir-Rahīm.
Sufi Master Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar teaches about the origins of the universe and of human beings as understood from the wisdom of Surah 55 of the Holy Qur’an. He describes that everything begins from nothing. Within the cradle of nothingness shines the first light. This light is Ar-Rahman, the character and expression of divine mercy and grace. Light is knowledge, and wrapped within the light of Ar-Rahman is the knowledge of Qur’an, which sets forth the rules of motion that inevitably lead to life and every detail and possibility of this universe. These rules find root in the spiritual dimension, before the existence of a corporeal reality, and can only be truly understood from within that dimension.
Dr. Kianfar continues to explain that in the physical dimension, all states of matter and energy are reverberations of God’s mercy and grace and reflections of the first light. Evolution in the physical realm is simply the movement of particles, and the transition of energy from one form of matter to another. These states and transitions are governed by the rules of motion, as set forth in the knowledge of Qur’an. As Dr. Kianfar points out, it is clear that all movement in physical reality is at its core an expression of divinity and a gift from Allah.
As a manifestation of matter and the end of billions of years of physical evolution, Dr. Kianfar teaches that the human body itself is part of the knowledge of Qur’an and a reflection of the light of creation in the world of matter. Countless reflections and transmissions of the light of creation have brought forth the body and suffused it with the gift of life.
These teachings make clear that physical existence is a consequence of the first light. Think of the surface of a pond, perfectly still and tranquil in the calm of the dawn. Into the middle of the pond falls a stone, and
from that single impulse, waves of motion ripple out in all directions. Those waves reflect and interact and create patterns of near infinite beauty and complexity. Like the stone, the light of Ar-Rahman is the impulse that sets the universe in motion. This truth of reality, known to spiritual masters through direct experience with an energetic heart-based connection, can be observed in modern science in a version of quantum mechanics called Bohmian mechanics.
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental physical theory that attempts to explain properties of nature at the microscopic scale. It has been enormously successful at predicting the outcomes of experiments at the subatomic level for which classical mechanics, i.e., the theories of Isaac Newton and those of his scientific lineage, provide faulty conclusions.1 At the heart of quantum mechanics is the wave function – a mathematical description of how the state of a given particle or system evolves with time. In what is certainly the most philosophically challenging aspect of modern physics, at a given moment in time, the wave function of a particle describes not where that particle is located, but the probability of finding that particle at a certain point in space. Indeed, the wave function itself implies that, before a measurement is carried out, a particle exists in a superposition of all possible positions in which it might be found. Once a measurement is carried out, possibility turns to certainty, and the particle appears in only one position. If one were to carry out the same experiment to measure the position of a given particle millions of times, one would find that the distribution of the results would match the probability distribution of that particle’s wave function exactly. Herein lies the core philosophical issue posed by quantum mechanics: does a particle have any definite physical properties before it is measured? Is there an ob-
jective reality in the absence of measurement? None of the math in quantum mechanics provides an answer to these questions, only a means to make statistical predictions about the outcomes of experiments.
There are other theories, however, that start with the idea that every particle in the universe does have a perfectly determinate position. In this class of theories, known as Bohmian mechanics (named for David Bohm who first rediscovered the math that underpins the theory in 1952), the configuration of a system of particles evolves via a deterministic motion choreographed by the wave function.2 Put more simply, “what happens … is that the particle gets carried along with the flows of the quantum-mechanical probability amplitudes in the wave function, just like a cork floating on a river.”3 Thus, Bohmian mechanics presumes that there does exist an objective reality in the absence of measurement, and our inability to predict the exact location of a given particle with mathematical certainty is due to our ignorance of that particle’s initial position at the beginning of the universe.
Now we return to the connection with the knowledge of Qur’an. As Dr. Kianfar reveals, within the cradle of nothingness shines the first light – the manifestation of divine mercy and grace. Wrapped within this light are the rules for motion that inevitably lead to life and every detail and possibility of this universe. These teachings, based in part on the wisdom of Surah 55 of the Holy Qur’an, find their echo in the Bohmian mechanical view on the origins of the universe: “And the statistical pos-
tulate, in a formalism like [Bohmian mechanics], can be construed as stipulating something about the initial conditions of the universe; it can be construed … as stipulating that what God did when the universe was created was first to choose a wave function for it and sprinkle all of the particles into space … and then leave everything alone, forever after, to evolve deterministically.”4 From this conception of a universal wave function, all matter in the universe can be considered fundamentally connected, rippling through time and space on waves reflected from the first light.
As science continues to take steps towards unravelling the rules and mechanisms of nature, more and more the conclusions reached are intertwined with the metaphysical and the spiritual. Questions posed by quantum mechanics like “is there an objective reality?” have been experienced and taught by spiritual masters long before human beings had the experimental apparatuses to probe these concepts quantitatively. Instead of seeing science and spirituality as incompatible, perhaps the greatest strides forward will come when we use spiritual knowledge and direct experience of the divine to guide future research.
1 Ghirardi, Giancarlo and Angelo Bassi, “Collapse Theories”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL=<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/qmcollapse/>
2 Goldstein, Sheldon, “Bohmian Mechanics”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato. stanford.edu/archives/fall2021/entries/qm-bohm/>.
3 Albert, D. Z. (1994b). Quantum Mechanics and Experience. Harvard University Press.
4 ibid.
Hakim Sana’i
A Sufi Poet of the Twelfth Century
Hakim Sana’i Ghaznawi, a Persian Sufi master and a poet of the 12th century, is best known for his Hadiqat al-haqiqa va shari‘at al tariqat (The Garden of Truth and the Law of the Path). This book has been regarded as the first mathnawi, a poetic style that influenced later Sufi masters and poets including Jalal-al Din Rumi. It seems that Ghaznawi’s works have been of great interest for many Sufi poets and masters including Ahmad Ghazzali (d. 1126), Hamadani (executed 1132), and Ruzbehan Baqli of Shiraz (d. 1209). Among Sana’i literary masterpieces is Seyr al-ibad elal-ma‘ad (The Journey of the Devotees to the Place of Return) that describes the allegorical story of a spiritual journey that perhaps resembles Ibn Sina’s allegory of Hayy ibn Yaqzan.1
1 For more information see J. T. P. de Bruijn, “Sanā’i” in Encyclopaedia Iranica, last accessed 3/4/2024.
2 Translated by Nahid Angha, Ph.D.
On Ma’rifat (knowledge) from Sana’i’s Hadīqatu-i-Haqīqat (Garden of Truth)
No one knows Him (God) His essence is only known through His own Self.
The intellect hurried to know Him But found its own weakness to unveil His truth.
His mercy called: know Me through Myself As no one knows Him through one’s own reason or sense
How can your senses find a way to that Absolute? How can a grain stand strong on the crown of a dome?
Reason can guide you, but only to the door It is His grace that takes you to His Absolute.
He is the owner of your mind and your heart He is the ultimate seeker and the Sought.2
Understanding the Tariqa Tijjaniyyah
Khalifa Aliyu Ahmed Abulfathi
Glory be to Allah who exalted the opening chapter of the Holy Quran and referred to it as the
mother of the Quran (Ummul) and the sab’al mathani (seven often repeated verses). We seek Allah’s everlasting blessing and pleasure upon the best of all creations Prophet Muhammad (SAW) whose presence amongst the sahaba guaranteed them safety from Allah’s wrath and the seeking of forgiveness provided the entire ummah with that safety after his physical departure from our known world (Quran 8:33). Oh Allah, grant these blessings upon the family, friends, and followers of the Prophet who have strived with every single breath of theirs for Your sake.
The Tijjani path also called the Tariqa Tijjaniyah is a popular Sufi order followed by multi-million Muslims in East and West Africa and beyond. The Tijjani path is about three centuries old and was established by Sheikh Ahmad Bin Muhammad Tijjani, may Allah be pleased with him (RTA), but founded by our Noble Prophet Muhammad SAW. We rightly claim the latter statement because following a long spiritual withdrawal (khalwa) by Sheikh Ahmad Tijjani (RTA) after going through virtually all available Sufi paths in his era, he gained a vision of the
Prophet who gave him a set of litanies founded from the Quran and a special salatul nabiyy. And whoever sees the Prophet in a dream has truly seen the Prophet SAW because the Shaytan can never take his form physically or spiritually.
The essence of this Tariqa is a conscious lifelong commitment to continuously seek the proximity to and pleasure of Allah subhanahu wataala (SWT) through enlightened adherence to the Quran and Sunnah. Every act and practice in this Tariqa is strongly justified by the Quran and Sunnah. This Tariqa is also one of Adab (good etiquette) because the Prophet SAW said Islam is all about good etiquette, and adab is the strongest pillar of gnosis (maarifah). In that vein, the leaders (Sheikhs and muqaddams) train themselves and their spiritual disciples towards perpetual improvement of their etiquettes with the consciousness of Allah SWT (taqwa). This Tariqa has a firm foundation on the daily recitation of litanies granted to us by the Prophet SAW through Sheikh Ahmad Tijjani (RTA). There are only three litanies.
Seeking forgiveness from Allah SWT. Many verses in the Quran enjoin believers to continuously seek forgiveness from Allah SWT (Quran 57:21; Quran 71:11).
Similar verses have also espoused the bounties in reward associated with seeking forgiveness. Recall that in Suratul Fath, Allah clearly stated that He has forgiven the previous and future sins of Prophet Muhammad SAW, but even so, he still seeks forgiveness every day more than one hundred times. In this Tariqa, we often repeat these prayers (dua) for forgiveness.
Astagfirullah – Oh Allah forgive me. We recite this multiple times after dawn prayer and after evening (asr) prayer (solatul asr) and Astagfirullah il azim allazi la il-
prayer (asr) or after maghrib prayer.
Invoking blessings (solat) upon the Prophet SAW. In the Holy Quran, Allah has mentioned that He and the Angels constantly invoke blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad (SAW), so he obliged all those who believe (mu’min) to do the same (Quran 33: 56). The Prophet (SAW) says whoever invokes one blessing on me, Allah SWT will invoke ten blessings on him. The blessing (solat) invoked upon the Prophet (SAW) by the Tijjani followers—called salatil fatihi (blessings of the opening)—is unique in its wordings which entirely aligns with Suratul Fatiha (the first and the most prestigious chapter of the Holy Quran). The wordings capture the complete spiritual and physical nature of the Prophet (SAW). We invoke these blessings in all our litanies several times. We can attempt to translate it into the English Language as thus:
O Allah, send blessings on our Master Muhammad, who opened what was closed, who sealed what had gone before, the helper of truth by the truth, the guide to Your straight path, and on his family, may these blessings be equal to his immense position and grandeur.
The third is the remembrance of Allah—also known as Zikir. The zikir is La ilaha ila llah (There is no God
should be one in all situations and conditions (Quran 3:191) even as He promises grand rewards for those who remember Him often (Quran 62:10). Allah explicitly mentioned that zikir is much greater than the performance of obligatory prayers, for prayers restrain us from shameful and unjust deeds (Quran 29:45). The Tijannis recite zikir in all our litanies and all our daily engagements.
These are the basic principles and practices of the Tijjani path which is essentially a strategy to build up good deeds that train the soul towards purity (Quran 91:9-10). It is, however, a requirement that every murid must have a Shaikh or spiritual guide as is stipulated in the Quran 18:17. For whoever does not have a spiritual guide, surely Shaytan is his guide. It is also a requirement that every adherent to this path must pray five times daily in the congregation, respectfully recite at least 100 verses from the Quran daily and hold their parents in high esteem while being kind to every creation.
On Allah, I place my trust and from Him, I seek guidance. May Allah bless our noble Prophet Muhammad SAW.
half 9th–mid-10th
Folio from the “Blue Qur’an.” Made in Tunisia, second
century. Accession Number: 2004.88. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Photograph by Soraya Chase Clow
Second tarji‘band from the Diwan of Hallaj1
The hidden treasure of love was found In the corner of the innermost heart.
Glory! The Beloved, of a magnificent beauty Has fallen in love with this servant’s heart!
As she unveiled her face upon the mirror of my heart I saw no one but my very old Friend.2
Seeing her own beauty in the polished mirror of the heart She fell in love with what she saw!
The hidden revealed itself in the visible site It became Majnun; then again, it became Layla.3
Veils upon veils, cycles within cycles Yet, the old Friend is hidden behind all those sights.
And thus, love’s devotion ignited the fire To burn all that hinders the way
Presenting it so eloquently to announce: Leave the differences behind
Drop the images of you and I Let go of this confused worshipping praising you and praising I.
1 See http://www.nosokhan.com/Library/Topic/0ZRD. The above are a few stanzas from Mansour Hallaj’s (Persian mystic and poet, d. 922) Diwan. Translated by Nahid Angha, Ph.D.
2 In Sufi terminology, the Friend and the Beloved refer to the Divine, God.
3 Layla and Majnun is the love story of Qays (Majnun) and Layla, who loved each other since childhood, but when they grew up, Layla’s father forced Layla to marry another man. We read about this beautiful story in the magnificent Khamsa of the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi (d. 1209).
Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba
Sheikh Salman Baruti
Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacke, known affectionately by his disciples as Khadim Rasul (Servant of the Prophet, PBUH), was one of the most influential Sufis in the history of West African Sufism and the founder of the Muridiyyah Sufi order.
Ahmadou Bamba was born in 1853 into a noble family in Khuru Mbacke, a village in Senegal founded by his father. His mother, Sokhna Mame Diarra Bousso, came from a family of Islamic scholars. Bamba’s father, Momar Anti Sali, was an Islamic jurist initiated into the Qadiriyyah Sufi order founded by Abd al-Qadir Jilani (d. 1166).
Bamba began his education at age seven in a village Qur’anic school established by his father. He finished memorizing the Qur’an at age twelve and continued his education, studying Arabic, Islamic sciences, hadith, and Islamic jurisprudence. After several years of studying with different teachers, Bamba gained a reputation as a respected cleric and became the principal teacher at his father’s school.
Introduction to Sufism
Bamba was initially introduced to Sufism by his father and his father’s cousin, Samba Tukuloor Ka, the Qadiriyyah’s representative in Senegal. Following his father’s death in 1883, Bamba began a journey of several months that took him across Senegal and Mauritania, where he met with several Sufi shaykhs and was initiated again into the Qadiriyyah order as well as the Shadhiliyyah and Tijaniyyah orders.
Informed by his experiences in Mauritania, Bamba returned to Khuru Mbacke and told his adult disciples that the Qur’anic school would begin to focus on tarbi-
yah, a holistic approach to education that seeks to transform the whole person by focusing on the body, mind, and soul. According to Bamba, tarbiyah also includes a special relationship between shaykh and disciple in which the disciple is no longer a talib (student) but a murid (aspirant) on the path to God who submits to the shaykh in all matters.1
The changes that Bamba implemented at his school in Khuru Mbacke were the foundation of the Muridiyyah movement. However, the major shift in teaching methodology caused many of Bamba’s disciples to leave the compound, unhappy with this new direction.
Nonviolent Resistance against French Colonial Rule
During the initial phase of the Muridiyyah movement, Ahmadou Bamba did not attract any negative attention from the French colonial administration. From 1889 to 1892, however, African chiefs, jealous of Bamba, viewed the Muridiyyah as a threat to their political power and complained to the French colonial administration about the Murids, suggesting that Bamba and his followers were trying to create a state within the state.
Bamba initially quelled tensions by writing letters to the French colonial governor and visiting him in SaintLouis, the then-capital of Senegal. This détente between the Muridiyyah and the French lasted for about three years, during which time Bamba clearly stated to the French on several occasions that he was solely engaged in what he called the “greater jihad—jihad of the soul” and that he had no interest in worldly affairs. Despite this, the relationship between the French and the Murids eventually deteriorated, and Bamba was falsely accused by African chiefs and French spies of stock-
piling weapons and preparing to wage jihad against the French. With no compelling evidence against him, Bamba was nonetheless arrested, convicted, and exiled to Gabon in 1895 for seven years.
The French saw Bamba’s arrest and exile as a way to maintain order in their colony. Bamba, on the other hand, viewed his arrest and exile as a test of faith and, upon his return to Senegal in 1902, stated that in exile, “he had reached the highest level of spiritual purity and blessedness.”2 Bamba’s disciples celebrated his return and now regarded him as a wali (friend of God) who had triumphed over French imperialism. Bamba’s exile did not weaken the Muridiyyah, as the French hoped, but contributed to its growth.
Bamba was exiled a second time in 1903 for refusing to be interviewed by the African chief appointed by the French to monitor Muridiyyah activities. This time he was only sent to nearby Mauritania under the supervision of Sheikh Sidiyya, his former Qadiri teacher. Bamba’s proximity to Senegal allowed him to communicate freely with his shaykhs and disciples. When Bamba was allowed to return to his home province in Senegal in 1912, he was placed under house arrest, where he remained until his death in 1927.
Growth of the Muridiyyah Movement
From the beginning of the Muridiyyah order in 1883 until Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba’s death, the movement faced criticism from Wolof aristocratic rulers and the French. The French colonial administration finally realized that trying to suppress Shaykh Bamba and the Muridiyyah only increased the movement’s popularity. Ahmadou Bamba also realized the best solution for the Muridiyyah was to create a sacred space: Daar al-Islam (land of Islam), within the boundaries of Daar al-kufr (land of unbelief).3
Today, over a third of the Senegalese population, some 11 million people, are Muridiyyah, with more Murid disciples found worldwide. The Muridiyyah
holy city of Touba is also the site of the Grand Magal of Touba,4 one of the world’s largest annual religious pilgrimages.
Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba was a prolific writer who left an enduring legacy of knowledge for truth seekers to contemplate and act upon. Below are a few words of his wisdom:
The Heart is like the image of the king among the members of the body; anywhere the body goes, the other members are supported with Mercy (under its influence).5
Purify your heart of dull spots until it is in intimacy with Allah.6
Knowledge and practice (‘ilm and amal) are two precious jewels which engender happiness in both worlds.7
The actions of one who acts without knowledge is like a particle of scattered dust.8
1 Cheikh Anta Babou, Fighting the Greater Jihad: Amadu Bamba and the Founding of the Muridiyya of Senegal, 1853–1913 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007), 63.
2 Babou, Fighting the Greater Jihad, 135.
3 Babou, Fighting the Greater Jihad, 163.
4 The Grand Magal of Touba is an annual celebration of the Senegalese Muridiyyah Sufi order. It takes place on the 18th of Safar, the second month of the Islamic calendar, and commemorates Ahmadou Bamba’s 1895 exile to Gabon by the French colonial government.
5 Quoted in Abdallah Salihu-Sufi, “The Teaching Qasides of Our Master Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacke: Iman, Islam, Ihsan,” June 8, 2013, https://www. scribd.com/document/146510831/The-Teaching-Qasides-of-ShaykhAmodu-Bamba, 59.
6 Quoted in Salihu-Sufi, “Teaching Qasides,” 59.
7 Quoted in Michelle R. Kimball, Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba: A Peacemaker for Our Time (Kuala Lumpur: The Other Press, 2019), 314.
8 Quoted in Kimball, Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba, 314.
Bibliography
Babou, Cheikh Anta. Fighting the Greater Jihad: Amadu Bamba and the Founding of the Muridiyya of Senegal, 1853–1913 Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007.
Kimball, Michelle R. Shaykh Ahmadou Bamba: A Peacemaker for Our Time. Kuala Lumpur: The Other Press, 2019.
Salihu-Sufi, Abdallah. “The Teaching Qasides of Our Master Chekh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacke: Iman, Islam, Ihsan.” June 8, 2013. https://www.scribd.com/ document/146510831/The-Teaching-Qasides-of-Shaykh-Amodu-Bamba
Ana Perez-Chisti, Ph.D.
Seeds of Change
Beloved Companions of the Heart,
I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Nahid Angha for her continual support of women in Sufism worldwide. It is a great honor to be with her and all of you today to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Sufi Women’s Organization.
Sufism for me is a path of the heart and it is gender neutral. As we recognize our heart as the throne of Divine consciousness, the feeling of love (Ishk) guides us in the direction of unity (Tawhid).
I was asked the question, “What is the seed of change that is necessary for our time?” My answer to that question has three points:
1. The inclusion of the Feminine Archetype in religious and scriptural language. Without the dual pronouns regarding the Godhead as united both in the Feminine and Masculine development we will continue to remain in a state of imbalance. Seeking the heart of the Divine Presence in all beings is the next step toward a directed conscious upliftment for all people. This is a complex religious subject and the time constraint of today does not allow me to elaborate on this point but it is a very necessary change to reflect upon.
2. Catching and changing female gender restriction in religious participation such as limiting women from leading prayer, refusing spiritual education, demeaning dress protocol, and proscribing submissive duties, and declaring the body as sinful, etc., must be the focus of the awakened practitioner today. We can strengthen our conscious will through our enlargement of ourselves as it supports the breadth of the community. We are invited here to this planet to evolve and to find
the Divine Presence within our hearts not to be addicted to obsessive protocol. The practices of contemplation, and meditation on the attributes of the Divine Name (Wazifa), and mantric prayer recitation (Zikar) would be most helpful to any individual who wishes to serve the well-being of all. It is the gift of freedom to be together and united in the Divine Power that guides us to move away from the voices that marginalize any person particularly women’s participation and contribution in any way as their extrication from religious inclusion limited the development of the spiritual community.
3. In my book, Sweet Reign-Fourth Wave Feminine Principles, I honor eight holy women who changed the lives of thousands of people and yet because of the marginalization of the feminine archetype in their time period, many are not known today for their prophetic contribution to the world. I have come to understand Fourth Wave Feminine Principles as a pathway into rebuilding the presence of the Holy Mother of the World-Gaia within the intuitive centers of women and men. When the intuitive center is given preference, one sees the Divine Origin of all things. One can then look steadily from the cosmic appearance into the transcendent reality, and then she\he is delivered from bewilderment that can flood the mind, the heart and the senses.
If we live in the transcendent reality, between the feminine and masculine archetypes, which is the Divine gift of universal balance given to every human being, one will be able to understand more fully their own individuality and those of others. Then, the
This article is based on Dr. Ana Perez-Chisti’s, also known as Aadya Murshida, presentation at the Sufi Women’s Organization - 30 Year Anniversary Celebration, March 2nd 2024 - Dominican University, Marin County, CA.
greater values of our purpose here on earth will be released from false conceptions of separation and egotistic demands of gender profiling, and domination strategies from the un-awakened and confused ideologies that see separateness as a necessary strategy for power over others. Instead of birthing a greater ascension into spiritual heights which evokes tenderness and compassion in the community, the loss of these virtues keeps us in stasis.
The heart of the awakened person becomes firmly attached in a constant sense to the integrated preservation of all living things in the world, the essence of the Universal form of Love is the Holy Mother of the World-Gaia. One will be able to see all things and every creature living not from the physical mind formed by abstract conceptions, images and forms, but rather intimately as a world of Divine Spirit animating everything that lives.
She is the essence of perfect archetypal balance between male and female because she takes the higher, holier consciousness of spirit and finds it in all things that are gender differentiated and ultimately united. Julian of Norwich, one of the Holy Women in my book, Sweet Reign, synthesizes this idea perfectly by experiencing Jesus through the Feminine Archetype:
So Jesus Christ who sets good against evil in our real Mother. We owe our being to him, and this is the essence of motherhood, and all the delightful, loving protection which ever follows. God is as really our Mother as our Father…the human mother will suckle her child with her own milk, but our beloved Mother, Jesus, feeds us with himself, and with the most tender of courtesy, does it
by means of the blessed Sacrament, the precious food of all true life. (Sweet Reign, p. 83)
The Sufi Mystic, Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan says, “I believe the path of our journey is within ourselves; just like the wide space beheld by the eyes, which do not seem more than an inch wide, yet miles of horizon can be reflected in them. It is so wide, and there is a path that runs from the body to the soul, from the human being to God.” (Sweet Reign, p. 112)
The change that is needed today is the transformed state that can lift the soul to another station of awakened consciousness and in turn allow one to be in the world in the most unified sense, feminine and masculine, body and soul, heart and mind, but not captured by the individuality of the world’s characters which cannot perceive how all Creation is a precious inseparable unfolding of Her Holy Being. May the Holy Mother’s Love abide and bless us all.
al-Alim
Sarah Hastings Mullin, Ph.D.
The All-Knowing
Al-‘Alim describes the all-knowing divine energy unlimited by time or space, ever expansive. Arising from unity or oneness (tawhid), it is the knowledge and makeup of every unique manifestation and of every potential. It is independent and preexisting of all but infused within and relied upon by everything. Sufi Master Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar notes that al-‘Alim is “the cognizant one whose sea of knowledge has no shore, whose knowledge is perfect in clarity and disclosure, who knows the inception and the outcome, the cause and resolution.”1
Moreover, Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali (Persian theologian and Sufi master, d. 1111) describes al-‘Alim as “not derived from things known; rather, things known are derived from it.”2 Uniquely, the human being receives the gift of being conscious of and driven to apprehend al-‘Alim directly. Al-Ghazzali highlights, referencing the Qur’an, that al-‘Alim cannot be apprehended by the mind, as it transcends the capacity of cognition. The seeker gradually actualizes the purity and subtleties of al-‘Alim as a synchronous experience of knowing by being and through further connection with knowing by heart:
This opening of a window in the heart towards the unseen also takes place in conditions approaching those of prophetic inspiration, when intuitions spring up in the mind unconveyed through any sense-channel. The more a man purifies himself from fleshly lusts and concentrates his mind on God, the more conscious will he be of such intuitions.3
Through a vigorous process of self-purification, the seeker strives to be constantly upgraded in his capacity to know deeper levels of al-‘Alim. Al-Ghazzali teaches that while al-‘Alim constantly demonstrates itself in varied levels of expansiveness and purity; the direct apprehension of its highest degree is the actualization of one’s divine nature discovered within a pure heart:
Likewise, knowing God the most high is the most beneficial knowledge of all, while knowledge of the rest of things is only distinguished because it is knowledge of the actions of God— great and glorious, or knowledge of the way which brings man closer to God—great and glorious, or the thing which facilitates attaining to knowledge of God the most high and closeness to Him. All knowledge other than that cannot claim much distinction.4
1Dr. Ali Kianfar, Illumination of the Names: Meditation by Sufi Masters on the Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God (San Rafael, CA: International Association of Sufism Publications, 2011), 52.
2Al-Ghazzali, The Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, 1992), 80.
3Al-Ghazzali, The Alchemy of Happiness, (Eastford, CT: Martino Fine Books, 2017), 23.
4Al-Ghazzali, Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names, 81.
“They said, ‘Exalted are You; we have no knowledge except what You have taught us. Indeed, it is You who is the Knowing, the Wise.’” — (Qur’an 2:32)
Calligraphy by Mostafa Mahboubmojaz
Echoing in the Breeze: Songs of the Soul Festival
Soraya Chase Clow, Ph.D.
A gentle breeze blew in Tiburon, California on June 8, 2024, carrying the sounds of an exquisite symphony made collectively by all who gathered to celebrate the sacred beauty of the heart. The poets, musicians and dancers, as well as the audience members themselves, together reflected and amplified a universal message of harmony, each through their unique expression.
The day began with a thoughtful introduction by Seyyedeh Hamaseh Kianfar, Ed.D., whose care and wisdom set the first beautiful note of the day. To this first note, a second harmonious note was added by Sara Moncada and Eddie Madril of Sewam American Indian Dance. Using story and traditional songs of their Yaqui ancestors, a people whose traditional lands ex-
tend southward into northern Mexico from present-day Tucson, Arizona, Sara and Eddie wove together a narrative of sacred interconnection, interdependence, and reciprocity. They reminded us all of our responsibility to tend to one another and to the land upon which we depend, ending their session with a hoop dance, wherein the dancer, through a seamless and continual rearrangement of hoops embodies the life spirit as it flows into and out of various plant and animal forms.
A chord was then formed with the addition of bass note by the poet and translator, Francesca Bell, Marin County Poet Laureate, 2023-2025. Through her deeply personal and sometimes gut-wrenching poems, Francesca led us on a journey into the dark complexity of human emotions. Unflinchingly describing the sorrow and pain of trauma, Francesca demonstrated a profound courage to face the darkest of shadows. By doing so, her work illuminates not only the resilience of the human spirit to endure hardship but also the tender thread of love that undergirds all of life even when it is difficult to see.
Then, to this chord a beat and rhythm were added by Taneen Sufi Music Ensemble, accompanied by bass player, David Rosenthal. Through their own unique musical arrangements, they
shared the enduring love poetry of Sufi masters, including such luminaries as Rumi, Shah Maghsoud, Omar Khayam, Hallaj, and others—all translated by Seyyedeh Nahid Angha, Ph.D. Through the ecstatic expressions of these poets and the meditative music of Taneen we were lifted to the realms of the divine where our tears dissolved in the great ocean of being and we were carried together in a strong current of love.
Two young Marin County poets, Mira Sridharan, Marin Youth Poet Laureate, and Clarisse Kim, Marin Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador added their voices to the chorus, bringing a promise of hope for humanity through their clear, heartfelt creative expressions. Their message was then amplified by Tamam Khan and Pir Shabda Khan. Through her careful and sensitive creative poetic renderings of the lives of Sufi women, Tamam invited us to collectively celebrate our shared humanity, with an invitation to unity and peace. And, with the joyful encouragement of Pir Shabda, we all participated in song through a call and response invitation to unity.
The next movement featured a harmonious synthesis of the gifts of Riffat Sultana, a master of Qawwali who represents eleven generations of vocalists from India and Pakistan, and Georges Lammam, a Lebanese musician and solo violinist who is bringing Arabic arts and cultural heritage to the fore in the U.S. Together they were accompanied by two more highly talented musicians, guitarist Richard Michos and drummer Rami Ziadegh, as well as David Rosenthal. Full of vitality and excitement, the collaborative musical expression of this group lifted us all to new heights of joy as we clapped along to the beat.
The final movement of this wonderful symphony of
the soul featured Avay-i-Janaan, an international and intergenerational poetry slam and music collective that originated through the Echoes of the Unseen. Using spoken word, rap, and stirring music, Elizabeth Miller, Craig Laupheimer, and Richard Wormstall took us on a cosmic journey into the “felt connections between self and universe, origin and potential,” focusing our gaze into the mystery of reality through the lens of both science and mysticism.
At the end of the day, with our hearts full, we said our goodbyes as the breeze echoed our songs of the soul.
Beyond Identification
“The Knowing of the Heart”
Offered by Sufism and Psychology Forum, a department of International Association of Sufism, in collaboration with Community Healing Centers
Saturday, December 7, 2024
Zoom
9:00am - 1:00pm (PT)
$50
Reflections
This year’s Beyond Identifications program considers the heart as a locus of knowledge and perception. The heart has been recognized as a center of awareness in many spiritual traditions since ancient times. Many healing traditions also recognize that the heart plays a central role in growth and transformation.
Both of our presenters have presented teachings from their respective spiritual paths as well as practiced psychotherapy for many years. They will bring both experiential wisdom of spiritual practice and knowledge of human psychology to their offerings. ias.org/beyond-identifcation
Beyond Identification
Dimensions of Presence
Jamal Granick, Ph. D.
The term “presence” has grown in popularity in the literature of psychotherapy, particularly, but not exclusively, those approaches that are affiliated with a spiritual perspective. However, the presence of the practitioner is not a new idea and has been recognized in the fields of nursing, pastoral counseling, and organizational development, as well as psychotherapy for several decades.
As this phenomenon has become prominent, it has also been incorporated into the specific theoretical contexts and is thereby associated with their respective assumptions and biases. It is therefore useful to differentiate the term from its embedded contexts.
Presence is an ordinary, everyday word for a common experience that has extraordinary implications for relationships in general, and the therapeutic relationship specifically. Presence has been described as comprising intrapersonal, interpersonal, and transpersonal dimensions.
This was confirmed in my own doctoral research1 which revealed that clients who perceive their therapists as having high levels of presence experience being deeply met in a way that invites profound connection with what is most essential within themselves, as well as a sense of interconnection with “something greater” that transcends the ordinary boundaries of consensus reality. Peak moments of shared presence with their therapists often precipitated spontaneous healing of long-held psychodynamic conflicts.
The dimensions of presence can be represented as expressing across two axes – a horizontal relational axis and a vertical transcendent axis. When therapists manifest significant presence along the horizontal axis, they
Dorothy Hunt Spiritual Director, Moon Mountain Sangha “Listening to the Heart’s Knowing “ Jamal Granick Coordinator, Beyond Identification “What does the heart know?”
To become aware of this dimension of presence requires awakening, or a shift of consciousness from our ordinary state. This possibility represents a great potential for human Being, but also comes with a great responsibility, especially for those who work in healing professions.
exhibit high levels of attunement, empathy, and compassion. These are consistent with features of the “therapeutic alliance,” which has been long established as the most significant factor in effective psychotherapy.2
However, when therapists are perceived as obtaining a high level of presence along the vertical axis, it seems to potentiate the relational dimension, elevating clients’ experience of the alliance in a way that transcends the ordinary boundaries of the self-other relationship. Participants in my research used words like intuition, resonance, and reverence to describe the quality of this connection. Further, they described the sense of being awakened to dimensions of being beyond the limits of their ordinary identification.
The contemporary Sufi Master, Shah Nazar Seyyed Ali Kianfar, Ph.D. described presence as abiding in “the fourth dimension,” asserting that this is actually the locus of the totality of one’s identity. To understand this statement, one must be able to conceptualize this highly abstract, metaphysical idea.3 The implication is that reality cannot be reduced to what appears to our senses as the physical world, limited to the three dimensions of space plus the apparent line of time. Similarly, one’s own being cannot be reduced to one’s body and its associated personality.
To state this in the affirmative, it means that my own being exists beyond the perceived limitations of space and time. From this perspective, everything that I ordinarily take to be “me” is only a fragment of who I actually am, and the “I” who I am exists in a much greater realm. In this regard, Dr. Kianfar further suggested that
“when you stand in the position beyond three dimensions, you can see your action and the result simultaneously. That is presence!”
To become aware of this dimension of presence requires awakening, or a shift of consciousness from our ordinary state. This possibility represents a great potential for human Being, but also comes with a great responsibility, especially for those who work in healing professions. If we, who profess to offer psychological healing, intend to help people shed their acquired identifications, in order to realize what is most essential within themselves, then it is incumbent upon us to ascend to our own highest potential. The evidence suggests that at those moments when we are able to touch that within ourselves which is most high, just our presence is healing.4
1 Granick, J. (2011), “Transpersonal Aspects of Therapists’ Presence: What Do Clients Experience”, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology.
2 Duncan, B.L, Miller, S.D., Wampold, B.E., and Hubble, M.A., (Eds.), (2010), The Heart and Soul of Change: Delivering What works in Therapy, (2nd ed.), Washington, D.C./APA Press.
3 It is beyond the scope of this article to elaborate the philosophical underpinnings of the concept of the multiple dimensions beyond the conventional three. For a mathematical-metaphysical treatment of the subject, the reader is referred to the chapter “The Fourth Dimension” in Ouspensky, P.D. (1934), A New Model of the Universe (2nd ed.), New York, NY: Knopf, pp. 61-100.
4 The renowned, and highly influential psychologist, Carl Rogers asserted this explicitly in an interview near the end of his life when he said: “Then simply my presence is releasing and helpful”; see Baldwin, M. (1987). Interview with Carl Rogers on the use of self in therapy. Journal of Psychotherapy and The Family, 3(1), 29-38.
The Green Sea of Heaven: Eighty Ghazals from the Díwān of Háfiz: an interview with authors Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr. and Iraj Anvar
The International of Association of Sufism’s Insight Newsletter editorial team, Ashley Werner and Victor Sinow, conducted the following interview, which has been edited for clarity and brevity.
THE GREEN SEA OF HEAVEN
80 Ghazals from the Díwán of Háfiz TRANSLATED BY
T. GRAY. JR & IRAJ ANVAR
Insight: The 30th anniversary edition of your book, The Green Sea of Heaven: Eighty Ghazals from the Díwān of Háfiz, features the beautiful visual presentation of the Persian and English text of Háfiz’s poetry side by side.
Iraj: I thought that having the Persian and English text side by side would be best for students of Persian who are interested in poetry, so they can compare and understand our translation choices. Also, it has been 45 years since the Iranian Revolution. Many Iranians around the world don’t have the background and the knowledge of the language to understand Háfiz in Persian, though he is so popular among Iranians.
Insight: Could you tell us how your partnership works and how you work together?
Iraj: When we started, Liz had 50 ghazals that were published in literary magazines over the years. A publisher wanted to publish them in a book, but he wanted her to revise them and work with an Iranian scholar. We worked on every single ghazal line by line, word by word. We spent months and months working on these ghazals.
It was actually delightful for me to work on the ghazals. Slowly but surely, I changed my opinion that it would be futile to try to translate Háfiz into English, because there are so many layers to Háfiz. The translation also depends on how the translator understands the poem. The version of Háfiz that you have now in your hand is the version as Liz and I understand it.
Liz: Just as we have our Háfiz that we were trying to bring into English, as the scholar Daryush Shayegan says, Háfiz speaks to every heart and every person has their own relation with Háfiz.
Insight: What makes Háfiz’s poetry special?
Iraj: The first thing that comes to mind is the use of the Persian language. It is unbelievable. He talks about everything in life. And he’s so down-to-earth. He lived in the 14th century, and if you read his work, it’s so contemporary. It seems that time does not wear out his words. As time goes by, the luster of his words becomes more shining. The more you read Háfiz, the more you understand the subtleties of the concepts and the language he uses. Somehow in my mind, it is connected to eternity. It’s an infinite ocean that you can swim in for centuries, for millennia, and not reach the shore.
Liz: It’s like a moment of lyrical space-time. It is suspended, and it is universal. The language is crystal clear. It moves through space-time like a continuum in a way that makes it timeless. Some of Shakespeare is like that, but Shakespeare is, I think, not quite dealing with the same level of spirituality that underlies the Islamic spirituality of Háfiz’s time.
Insight: What lessons do you think Háfiz offers for understanding our own humanity and capacity for spiritual knowledge?
Liz: What I take away from Háfiz is in two different learnings. One is as a poet, what I learned from a fellow literary artist. I wanted to learn how to write love poems — to God or to a person or to Being. What I learned about writing and about what a poet can do is extraordinary in terms of craft and form, in terms of speaker and addressee. As a seeker and as a human being, it is Háfiz’s capaciousness. He is so inclusive. Everyone from the beggar to the angels in heaven are part of his universe.
Thats why I think the Shayegan essay in the book’s afterword is so interesting. He talks about this moment in spiritual time from before creation to beyond infinity. Háfiz claims that world. Everything that falls in there, falls under His gaze. It is all part of this Divine continuum, in which everything mirrors each other.
Iraj: I can just emphasize that before reading these translations, whoever has the book should read the introductory essay. It’s unbelievably illuminating. As for the greatness of Háfiz and the spiritual benefit he can he can bring to humanity, it’s beyond me to explain that. I really feel like a speck of dust. Háfiz is so huge, such an incredible God-like image for me, that whatever I say, I just diminish him.
Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr. is an author, poet, and attorney based in New York City. Iraj Anvar is an actor, singer, stage and film director, writer translator, and educator.
The Green Sea of Heaven: 80 Ghazals from the Diwān of Háfiz is available to order through Monkfish, Bookshop.org, and Amazon.
The Service Appreciation Grants program, established in 2019 by Dr. Nahid Angha, Founder of Sufi Women Organization, was designed to honor and support the work of a woman or women-led organization in rural neighborhoods. A select panel of judges reviews nominations, and recipients are announced annually.
Service Appreciation Grant
The grant program honors those who have shown excellence in the following areas:
women action
Significantly improving the quality of life of women through social programs in health care, employment, and conflict resolution.
Advocating to reduce poverty among women.
Improving gender equality in public and/or private life.
Promoting women’s and girls’ right to access education. The grants extend far beyond the individual recipients in providing financial assistance. The grants foster transformative journeys that impact the lives of the women we support and their communities.
2024 Grantees
DESPINA NAMWEMBE OF KAMPALA, UGANDA (Honoree 2024)
Despina is implementing a comprehensive Women & Girls Empowerment Program, URI-GL in Eastern Uganda, with a focus on promoting the women’s and girls’ rights to property and education. In this target area, traditional and conservative community norms have historically undervalued girls’ education and women’s property ownership. The women and girls are sensitized about their rights with economic empowerment initiatives, providing entrepreneurship training and startup capital for small and micro enterprises to enhance their income and livelihoods.
JANE ANYANGO OF KIBERA, NAIROBI
(Honoree 2024)
Jane’s organization, Polycom Girls, started as a self-help group by young women to protect their daughters from sexual manipulation and violence as the women empower themselves economically. The program responds to issues and challenges faced by women within Kibera Slums. Polycom Girls just launched a new strategic plan which will see the older generation passing the baton to the younger generation while promoting cross generational learning.
SOLANGE AQUINO OF PORTUGAL
(Honoree 2018, 2023 and 2024)
Solange helps African immigrant families and children. She has developed the projects Youth on the Move and THEATRE, which help to fight against poverty for a population of mostly African young girls. The programs also develop volunteer activities and education within the community to care for the small children while their mothers attend literacy classes. During the 2024 year, Solange will work mainly with women and young people to raise awareness on gender equality, domestic violence and dating violence. The programs provide empowerment activities and promote self-esteem.
UMAYMA OF MIGRANT WOMEN ASSOC
MALTA (Honoree 2023 and 2024)
Migrant Women’s Association Malta (MWAM) has successfully provided social support to asylum-seeking and refugee women and their families in Malta. Over 25% of these women are victims of sexual or genderbased violence (SGBV) struggling to overcome poverty. Migrant Women’s Association Malta has launched a new project in 2024 called “Kids Happy Space” with the primary objective of providing support to children of asylum seekers, refugees, and migrant families who have been impacted by violence and poverty.
RUTH NALYANYA OF KENYA
(Honoree 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024)
Ruth works with the Eshirandala Mirembe and Bukhakhala Wekhonye Women’s groups dealing with poverty in the households and wide-spread women and gender-based violence. The objectives are to strengthen the role of the women in their communities through sustainable economic empowerment activities. Ruth and the groups have strategically realigned their 2024 focus to concentrating on table banking, sugarcane farming, and tree growing. These core projects have demonstrated financial stability and community benefits.
Women’s Wisdom: Women In Action Speaker Series
Eddie
Zacapa: co-founder of Life Enriching Communication; and a certified trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC).
September 21, 2024, at Dominican University of California
Under the direction of Dr. Nahid Angha, the Sufi Women Organization (SWO), a humanitarian, non-political organization, held its semi-annual speakers’ presentation program, Women’s Wisdom: Women in Action. Through this program, SWO honors leaders, activists, and humanitarians who have provided exemplary services. SWO seeks to bring people together to learn, to build community, and to cultivate ways of living and working oriented toward dignity, health and service. Event proceeds support SWO’s humanitarian work.
Dr. Sarah Hasting Mullin, a Council member for the Sufi Women Organization, welcomed Eddie Zacapa, to a well-attended lecture. Eddie Zacapa began with an introduction to compassionate communication and Getting Beyond Assumptions & Connecting with the Heart.
Sharing a story of what nonviolent communication means to him, Eddie said that as a young child he experienced an incident on his birthday wherein he had a moment of wanting to be like his father, a “safe person,” who remained calm when there were tensions. Later in life, Eddie found his passion with learning the basic techniques of Nonviolent Communication (NVC), and became a certified trainer.
Eddie explained that Nonviolent Communication is a communication framework developed by psychologist Marshall Rosenberg in the 1960s and has been used by individuals, groups, and peace building organizations around the world. Learning NVC empowers individuals to build stronger relationships, resolve conflicts with compassion, bridge differences, and promote peace and cooperation across diversity.
He walked the audience through a series of slides with exercises to experience NVC. Through interacting with one another, each participant learned to differentiate between observing and evaluating others. This can help bring more awareness to the mind chatter that leads to disconnection and alienation. It also opens one’s awareness of feelings and needs, helps one find ways to express one’s self effectively, and increases the likelihood of being heard.
We learned there is a gentler, softer way through nonviolent communication to create a new story for ourselves through observing without and realizing the hardest battles are within ourselves.
SWO appreciates Eddie and all who attended the presentation! For more about SWO, visit: ias.org/swo
The Sufi Women Organization hosted our annual virtual fundraiser, Harvest Your Treasures, on September 7, 2024. 100% of our proceeds from all harvest sales support humanitarian groups, women’s rights, education and social awareness. Over the years, our efforts have made a big difference in the lives of women and women-led communities worldwide. With the support of our community, we’ve helped women access education, healthcare, and vital resources that boost their independence and well-being. By backing women-led projects,
The Sufi Women Organization hosted our annual virtual fundraiser, Harvest Your Treasures, on September 7, 2024. 100% of our proceeds from all harvest sales starting in 2012, support humanitarian groups, women’s rights, education and social awareness.
Over the years, our efforts have made a big difference in the lives of women and womenled communities worldwide. With the support of our community, we've helped women access education, healthcare, and vital resources that boost their independence and wellbeing. By backing women-led projects, we're not just supporting individuals we’re helping to strengthen whole communities.
This year, all purchases and donations supported SWO’s humanitarian work, the Women’s Wisdom: Women in Action Service Appreciation Grant Program. Attendees invested generously for the futures of globally courageous women and women-led organizations showing excellence in improving the quality of life of women through social programs advocating for Equity, Healthcare, Education and Human Rights
To read about Sufi Women Organization’s 2024 honored grantees in Kenya, Malta, Kibera, Portugal, Uganda and Sierra Leone, go to ias.org/swo-grants/
we’re not just supporting individuals— we’re helping to strengthen whole communities.
This year, all purchases and donations supported SWO’s humanitarian work, the Women’s Wisdom: Women in Action Service Appreciation Grant Program. Attendees invested generously for the futures of globally courageous women and women-led organizations showing excellence in improving the quality of life of women through social programs advocating for Equity, Healthcare, Education and Human Rights.
SWO invites your participation in its annual Gifts of Peace Donation Drive from October 1st to December 31st.
Please partner with SWO by donating to One Warm Coat and the SF-Marin Food bank. Your support will help supply coats and food supplies to individuals in need for the winter months.
Links to the donation pages for these organizations can be found on our website: ias.org/swo
I asked the Lord of Might [to explain] what liberation (ikhlās) is, He replied: “A secret pertaining to My secret, I entrust it to the heart of one whom I love from among my Servant.”1
Grant me the gift of a “tongue of veracity” that can give expression to the witnessing the Truth, and distinguish me with clarity and eloquence through the all-inclusive Words. Protect me in all my utterances from claiming that which is not mine by rights, and make me [speak] “according to inner vision, I and those who follow me”. O, God, I take refuge in You from any speech that creates confusion or results in discord or sows doubt. It is from You that [all] words are received; it is from you that [all] wisdoms are obtained.2
1 Mishkat al-anwār, no 2. This hadith was transmitted by one of the Prophet’s companions, Hudhayfa, who asked him about ikhlās Muhammad then asked the angel Gabriel, who in turn asked God.
2 Wird, Saturday eve. There are two Quranic quotations embedded in the prayer, Quran 26:84 and 12:109.
Photograph by Anthony Taher Roybal
Presenting a comprehensive portrait of Ibn ‘Arabi’s life and thought, highlighting his special place in history and his particular relevance in the modern world.
Stephen Hirtenstein has been editor of the Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society since its inception in 1982, and is a co-founder of Anqa Publishing, and currently works as a Senior Editor for the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, and lives in Oxford.
For further information please contact Anqa Publishing, PO Box 1178 Oxford OX2 8YS, UK
Newly released!
International Association of Sufism Publications
Uwaiyse Gharani and his school by
Shah Nazar Ali Kianfar
A biography and discussion of Uwaiyse Gharani, original exemplar of heart-to-heart transmission of sacred knowledge, and the Sufis who came after him whose practices reflect this process of attaining spiritual understanding.
Written in the Persian language.
Copies can be ordered at www.ias.org/publications/
The essence of the human being, regardless of gender or color, time or place, has been regarded as reverent, dignified, and respectful by teachers of humanity. Such magnificence is the gift of Being to humankind, the art of recognizing such magnificence is learned. The foundation of civilization is based on teachings and learning, and the first teacher of any human being, male or female, from any social position or illumination, is a mother. To direct the civilization to a favorable station, one has to rely on the power of a mother, providing that she knows the value of her position. A mother, in fact, is the teacher of all. Underestimating such power and strength, overlooking such magnificence is most unfortunate.
Dr. Nahid Angha, Founder
A journey of spiritual awakening awaits in Charles P. Gibbs’s insightful new collection of poems, Light Reading
Always on a pilgrimage of remembrance, even during the brief time in which he tried to run away from his own understanding of God, Gibbs has learned to embrace and thrive in his spiritual understanding. Whether you are a seasoned pilgrim, have just set off on a spiritual journey of your own, or merely possess a vague feeling that something significant is missing in your life, Light Reading will support and challenge you on your own sojourn into the heart.
Charles P. Gibbs is an internationally respected spiritual leader, interfaith activist, speaker, and writer who has committed his life to serving the world through interreligious and intercultural engagement. An Episcopal priest, he served for seventeen years as the founding executive director of the United Religions Initiative, a global network of people from diverse religious and spiritual traditions united in service to the Earth community. He recently became senior partner and poet-in-residence for Catalyst for Peace.
A prolific writer, Gibbs’s published works include coauthoring Birth of a Global Community; contributing a chapter to Interfaith Dialogue and Peacebuilding; “Opening the Dream: Beyond the Limits of Otherness,” an essay publishd in Deepening the American Dream. Charles cherishes and is inspired by his family. He is blessed with dear friends and colleagues of diverse faiths from around the world.
Department of Public Information
Non-Governmental Organizations
Stepping up for children
The President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSCOC), Bob Rae hosted the meeting. “The importance of insisting on completely equal rights of women and young girls is an official commitment of the United Nations, but it is also a personal commitment for which we must wage a combat,” he stated.
The International Association of Sufism is a non-profit organization, and a NGO/DGC associated with the United Nations. As an active human rights advocate, IAS disseminates information focused on Human Rights, Social Justice, Education, Women’s Rights, Sustainability and Climate, as offered and organized by the United Nations. For the most up to date information visit: http://ias.org/service/unitednations/
Third UN Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries
Registration: 10-13 December 2024
Registration Deadline: 4 November 2024
Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) are locked out: with no direct territorial access to the sea, they struggle with international trade, connectivity, and economic and sustainable development. The Third UN Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries in Gaborone, Botswana, opens an opportunity to explore meaningful partnerships to unlock the potential of landlocked developing countries.
Goal #6 - Clean Water
By 2030:
1. achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all.
2. achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations.
3. improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally.
4. more at sdgs.un.org/goals/goal6
The world’s longest running journal on Sufism
40 years of service toward cultivating peace and understanding in the world
Since its founding in 1983, the International Association of Sufism has been proud to be a home for Sufis, spiritual seekers, and people of all kinds devoted to uplifting the quality of humanity around the globe. Over the last four decades, the IAS has been blessed with phenomenal growth and has worked hard to be a leader in a wide range of areas. Among the longest running of its traditions of service is our journal, Sufism, An Inquiry, which we first published in 1987. Since that time, Sufism, An Inquiry has been a living reflection of the dynamic energy and growing global community of Sufis and searchers who are deeply engaged in the work of the IAS.
Since its inception, the pages of Sufism, An Inquiry have championed women’s rights and the work of the Sufi Women Organization; published scientific inquiries ranging from the physiology of heart math to the latest findings of astronomers; shared new translations of classic works of Sufi literature previously unavailable in English; offered works by leading psychologists on human development and the spiritual path, reported on human rights and other diplomatic movements ranging from the work of the United Nations to interfaith organizations such as the United Religions Initiative; explored the cultural gifts of world religions diversely embodied around the planet; and provided insight into a wide variety of effective practices for spiritual development. As a whole, the tradition at Sufism, An Inquiry of featuring the work of great teachers, scholars and scientists from a wide variety of global perspectives, historical contexts and fields of specialization runs deep and strong throughout our journal’s history and shall continue to grow far into the future.
Since the time the IAS first began publishing Sufism, An Inquiry, the world has also gone through an amazing transformation full of new opportunities and new challenges. One notable dimension in which the world has changed completely is the world of media under the influence of the internet and high technology. Just as the IAS has been at the forefront of leadership efforts for peace, human rights and equality, religious freedom and international cooperation, critical to meeting the opportunities and challenges of our changing world, today the IAS is proud to announce that it is relaunching Sufism, An Inquiry in a new online, digital format that will make it more dynamic and more accessible than ever to a worldwide population. We look forward to developing video content, mp3 audio files, social interactivity, links to websites with related content, and a beautiful full-color layout. At the same time, we plan to offer the journal, not just online, but in print, in downloadable pdf format, and in other formats readable on e-readers.
To all our readers who have added so much to our community over these many years, we wish to extend our great appreciation for making us part of your life and we extend to you and to all our enthusiastic invitation to journey with us into this new and exciting period of growth for our journal. We hope you will enjoy this issue. Let us know what you think in an email to ias@ias.org.
Peace to you and yours,
Sufism, An Inquiry Editorial Staff, The International Association of Sufism
Sufi Gatherings, Uwaiysi Tariqat
Saturdays, bi-monthly, Novato, CA or on Zoom
Sunday
Wednesday
Qur’an Class with Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali Kianfar
Once a Month, 3:00-4:00 pm On Zoom
Register: https://ias.org/ias-events/
40 Days Meditation & Book Reading Sundays, bi-monthly, 9:00am On Zoom
Call in advance: Arife Hammerle, Ph.D. (415) 382-7834
Amir al-Momenin Imam Ali Reading Group
First Sundays, monthly, 11:00 am (Pacific) On Zoom
Contact Sheikh Salman Baruti (415) 382-7834
Illumination of the Names Monthly Discussion Group
Monthly on Wednesday, 7:00-8:00 pm On Zoom
Contact Leili First, Ph.D. (415) 382-7834
Thursday
Peace and Love Dialogue
Third Thursday of the Month, 7:30-8:30 pm On Zoom
Contact Sarah Hastings Mullin, Ph.D. (415) 382-7834
