The Question...

Dear Friends

Where is the light?

Where is the guidance?

Where is hope?

Where is solace?

Where is refuge?

Where is meaning?

Where is the future?

Where am I?

Where is the truth?

The teacher called Love...

Dear Friends

Yes what is love..

Why all this pain and humiliation?

Why all these pointing fingers?

Why all these broken promises?

Give me the answers....

Well Rumi teaches me...

Let your teacher be LOVE itself
Love drives you mad
from revelation to revelation
through ordeal after ordeal
until humble and broken
you are carried tenderly
into the heart of the rose.

Spiritually homeless...

Dear Friends

Surrender to God / Islam is only actualized after you have become a spiritual orphan and the earth becomes your home. The signs / ayats are when beloveds question your devotion and friends leave your side...I am reminded of the Prophet Ayub whose wife left him but God did not...

The currency of the path is intensely bitter yet sweet pain...Even sweet smelling roses have thorns and bugs...

If we strive to become roses for God then I guess the thorns and bugs are part of the package...

Road to Medina...

Dear Friends

A good friend is making a road trip to Medina and this inspired me to pen the following....

On the road to Medina...

 

On the road to peace

Salvation and freedom

 

Full of hope

Expectation and awe

 

For the realisation

Of past dreams

 

Winning forgotten battles

Forgiving enemies

 

Giving thanks for friends

Praying for family

 

Above all meeting Muhammed (pbuh)

Silently sitting at his feet

Absorbing into his presence

 

Entering no time

No place and beyond...

 

The road to Medina

Welcome to all...

(The following is a celebrated medieval poem honouring Muhammed (pbuh) in 3 languages...)

Why Rumi....

Dear Friends

You will notice that Hazrat Mevlana Rumi is a constant touchstone on this blog. Since, towards the end of my stay in Turkey I made an emotional pilgrimage to Konya.

Words cannot describe the deep and healing love that Mevlana bestowed during those magical 4 days and 3 nights. There were no questions or justifications just pure spiritual hospitality of the highest order...Since, Rumi says:

“Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again , come , come.”

In Sha Allah I hope one day to write in detail about my Turkish sojourn...

Turkish tears...

Dear Friends

I lived and worked in Istanbul for 3 glorious months in late 2008. It was a cross roads in my life because I was working through a broken relationship, and, unknown to me at the time, I was being prepared for a new career; teaching...I used to listen to this track all the time...

Towards the end of my stay I discovered that Kazim had actually died...May Allah continue to bless his soul...Ameen...Suma Ameen...

Spiritual 'pick me up'...

Dear Friends

When you are down in the dumps or your soul is knotted or when the chips are down or things are going pear-shaped or when you just want a legal and instantaneous pick me up...Well wash your face with cold water and recite the following, Quranic verse, from the depths of your heart...

Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un

'Surely we belong to Allah and to Him shall we return'. (Surah 2: Verse156)

Since, Allah promises:

So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me and do not deny Me. (Surah 2: Verse 152)

The Sword of a Sufi...

Dear Friends

Are you ready to be killed by the sword of an authentic Sufi? 

The lover wields the sword of Nothingness 
in order to dispatch all but God: 
consider what remains after Nothing. 
There remains but God: all the rest is gone

(Rumi)


If not then either you are weekend Sufi or wanna-be Sufi or an arm chair Sufi...Harsh...Yes...but that's the way the Sufi cookie crumbles...

Authentic Leadership...

Dear Friends

The following quote from Rumi signposts authentic leadership for the temporal and spiritual spheres:

’Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder.

Help someone`s soul heal.

Walk out of your house like a shepherd.

The beautiful imagery of the lamp, lifeboat, and ladder highlight the servant dimension of leadership. The shepherd is an exquisite reference to the Prophets and friends of Allah who heal and lead souls.

We are all leaders...Therefore, seize the moment...

Let us heal and be healed...Ameen. Suma Ameen...

Who am I ?

Dear Friends

I am the exquisite product of an Eastern tradition (my forefathers were Ksatriya Hindu’s converted by Chistiyah Sufi saints) and the post modern West (British born and blessed with a Liberal Arts education).

For a long time I cursed my identity – Who am I?

Pakistani?

British Pakistani?

British Muslim?

European Muslim?

Muslim

British Sufi?

Sufi?

Sufi Muslim?

Etctctctctctctctct.......

I will never forget the day I met a Pakistani atheist in Islamabad in 2002 – it blew my mind...I thought I had left that stuff behind!!!!

Hahahahahahaha...Now I appreciate with the benefit of hindsight my extensive travel and spiritual / worldly experiences to date are in a reality a search for identity.

The painful truth is that we are all mongrels!

Now I wholeheartedly embrace my past, future and now...

I am an urban and thoroughly post modern salik where stress, depression, meaninglessness, consumerism and the bizarre fuel my imagination and inner journey...Yaa Haq!

As Rumi reminds us:

What is to be done, O Moslems? For I do not recognize myself.
I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr, nor Moslem.

I am not of the East, nor of the West, nor of the land, nor of the sea;
I am not of Nature’s mint, nor of the circling heavens.

I am not of earth, nor of water, nor of air, nor of fire;
I am not of the empyrean, nor of the dust, nor of existence, nor of entity.

I am not of India, nor of China, nor of Bulgaria, nor of Saqsín;
I am not of the kingdom of Irãqain, nor of the country of Khorãsãn.

I am not of this world, nor of the next, nor of Paradise, nor of Hell;
I am not of Adam, nor of Eve, nor of Eden and Rizwãn.

My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Traceless;
‘Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved.

I have put duality away, I have seen that the two worlds are one;
One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I call.

He is the first, He is the last, He is the outward, He is the inward;
I know none other except ‘Yã Hú’ and ‘Yã man Hú.’

I am intoxicated with Love’s cup, the two worlds have passed out of my ken;
I have no business save carouse and revelry.

If once in my life I spent a moment without thee,
From that time and from that hour I repent of my life.

If once in this world I win a moment with thee,
I will trample on both worlds, I will dance in triumph for ever.

O Shamsi Tabríz, I am so drunken in this world,
That except of drunkenness and revelry I have no tale to tell

I have a dream...

I have a dream...

Where the Sufi Master disappears

With each breath...

Where the salik revels

With every ayat...

Where master and student

Are ultimately friends

Lovers, and much more...

That was my living dream of Pir Muhammed Nur ud din...

And May his presence live on...

In the moment...

Dear Friends

No Past
No Future
No problems
Just the moment...

Rebels with a cause...

Dear Friends

At its heart Sufism is about rebellion.

Rebellion begins against the false Gods of pride, hypocrisy, sloth, greed and ignorance because they inflict severe internal damage and are the major causes of spiritual obesity.  Only when the latter have been transformed into humility, sincerity, discipline, charity and knowledge can we begin to contemplate victory akin to a spiritual Fatah Makkah and beyond...

This rebellion will takes years if not a whole life time however as the salikah transforms so does her external environment and if enough people are engaged in this noble yet essential task a critical mass will emerge so that society in general improves. In Sha Allah.

It is important to realise that only the elite rebels will experience non-duality...as Mevlana Rumi reminds us:

I died to the inorganic state and became endowed with growth,

 and (then) I died

to (vegetable) growth and attainted to the animal.

I died from animality and became Adam (man), why then I should fear,

 When have I become less by dying?

At next remove I shall die to man, that I may soar and lift up my head amongst

the angels;

And I must escape even from (the state of) the angels:

“Everything is perishing except His face.”

Once more I shall be sacrificed and died to angel: I shall become that which enter not to imagination.

Then I shall become non-existence: non-existent saith to me, (in tone loud) as an organ:

“Verily unto Him shall we return.”

WHO DARES WINS...

Teaching Freedom...

Dear Friends

When I switched from a potentially lucrative career in accounting and finance to teaching my loved ones were worried...My stock and trade suddenly changed from dry spreadsheets to the fickle human mind.

I wholeheartedly admit that my first career was not really flowing. Teaching found me and not only blessed me with a whole new cosmos but saved my sanity. I rediscovered the will to live and found that I could make a small yet tangible difference to people’s lives.

The classroom remains the theater of dreams and I love witnessing human spirits quite literally unfolding before my eyes like butterflies...Al Hum Du Lillah...In reality as teachers we are the students and regardless of subject we are teaching freedom...In Sha Allah...

Today with 5 years of further and higher education teaching under my belt I have won my first student nominated award – Inspirational Teacher of the Year 2012 / 2013...Ma Sha Allah...

As Mevlana reminds me:

‘’ Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune:  every success depends upon focusing the heart."

Being Human...

Dear Friends

I have been on the path for in excess of 2 decades...

Initially it was about becoming a Master and realizing sainthood. I was and remain obsessed with Sufi philosophy and history and for a long while I was a meditation junkie. I traveled extensively powered by an unquenchable desire to spread the Gospel of Pir Nur ud din.

When I got the chance to relocate to the Muslim world and become a ‘saviour’ I quit everything and not surprisingly I failed miserably and nearly got killed in the process. Personal tragedies and failed relationships mounted and I wound up in Konya where my heart was mended by the love of Mevlana.  For a long period I became disillusioned with the whole Sufi enterprise and even thought of throwing in the towel...

Now I just want to be a human being (imperfections and all)...In Sha Allah...

KEEP WALKING...

Jamming with the Swami...

Dear Friends

The early 2000’s were an intense period of personal growth and failure. In late 2005 I ended up in California and spent 3 weeks walking the streets of San Francisco, including Haigh Ashbury and the iconic Berkley campus and drinking its counterculture.  I visited most of the major places of worship and the notorious City Lights Bookshop that gave birth to the Hippie movement. It was a Hippie pilgrimage!

The highlight was private sessions with the foremost Malamati Shaykh in the Bay Area if not the USA and an audience with the resident Swami at the Sri Vivekananda Temple on 2323 Vallejo Street.  I met the Swami in the traditional Indian way and touched his feet. We spent 30 minutes chatting and requested some counsel he looked at me and said:

‘’For you Faisal. Take the name of your Lord and be Happy!”...

Get up....NEVER GIVE UP!

Fellow Saliks / Seekers of Truth,

The path to Allah is littered with obstacles designed to test our mettle and ultimately separate the men from the boys and the women from the girls. You will meet plenty of burnt out saliks and cynics and I have done my fair share of wallowing in self-doubt...HOWEVER...as Rumi reminds us:

“When you go through a hard period,
When everything seems to oppose you,
... When you feel you cannot even bear one more minute,
NEVER GIVE UP!
Because it is the time and place that the course will divert!”

THE ONLY EASY DAY WAS YESTERDAY....

Muhammadan wisdom...

It is better to make a mistake in forgiving than to make a mistake in punishing -

Prophet Muhammad (SAW)

RED SUFISM...

Dear Friends

On one level there is nothing much left to say and do in Sufism however my humble insight is RED SUFISM...

an horizontal strategy / approach to Sufism...

inspired by the life of Sufi Hallaj - the first martyr of Sufism...

specializing in self-mastery through personal discipline...

thoroughly grounded in this world but not of it... 

continuously trans-formative...

deeply political yet beyond left and right...

above all a work in progress...

POWER TO THE HEART...

Faisal

Sufi Chess...

Dear All

Rumi Sings:

We are the flute, our music is Yours;

We are the mountain echoing only You;

Pieces of chess, You marshall us in line

And move us to defeat or victory…

Perhaps the above smacks of fatalism...however, even in defeat there is victory...

Check Mate!

Faisal 

Jamming Jihad...

Friends

On the path

To surrender

There is no retreat

For freedom is discipline

And never say..NEVER

Because this is your DESTINY...

The Religion of Love...

Dear All

Recently a former student got in touch with me and to my surprise she admitted that had been praying for more than 4 years now that I would ‘see the light’ and come to Jesus Christ...

A close colleague who is a devout Hindu regularly prays for me and has hinted that I should consider re-converting as my forefathers were Ksatriyaa / Warrior caste Hindu’s...

I am reminded of the great Ibn Arabi who exquisitely remarks:

"My heart has become a receptacle of every form;
it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
and a temple for idols, and pilgrims' kaba,
and the tablets of the torah, and the book of the Koran.
I follow the religion of love, whichever way its camels take.
For this is my religion and my faith." (translated by A.E. Affifi)